Fixing Our Broken System Of Financial Aid

July 23rd, 2008 by Jake Hatlin | Posted in Talking Policy |

I usually don’t find myself engrossed in the Houston Chronicle.  I mean no ill will toward the metropolitan paper, it’s just never really turned me on before.  However, when I came across this article on proposed new rules that could make college financial aid based more on merit and less on financial portfolio, I couldn’t put it down.

Here’s a little upfront information about me.  I have not, do not, and will never buy into this theory that we should punish people for being “rich”.  Sorry, Senator Obama, I read your book and all, but I’m still not on board. 

Basically I find punishing the “rich” through either proportionately higher taxes or by excluding them from opportunities to be both a disincentive for one to want to better themselves and also to be firmly against our nation’s bedrock principle that if you succeed where others couldn’t, then you have rightfully earned the fruits of your labor.

I have always viewed our state’s system of distributing financial aid as a gross injustice.  No where in my perfect world should financial aid (loans or grants) be granted based on who “needs” it instead of who deserves it.  In a nutshell, here’s why…everyone needs it.

Frankly I find it very presumptuous for the state to assume that just because parents can afford to pay for their child’s college education that they will.  I know of many accomplished students from my college days whose well to do parents opted not to cover their total education expenses.  At the same time, these same students had trouble obtaining their desired level of state financial aid because of their family’s income status.  So as you can see, they needed it, too.

But probably easier to relate to is the fact that the income thresholds we have worked with in the past have been extremely unfair to middle class working families.  Teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters, they all work hard to put food on the table, they all do not have the capabilities to pay for their children’s higher ed needs, and yet for some unexplainable reason, the state considers them all to be in such position.

And the children of these middle income families who perform so well in high school, who meet every academic standard, who prove to be a worthy investment, are left with nothing but empty pockets and an unfair system that says, sorry, merit doesn’t matter here.

I, personally, find it hard to swallow every time we look a top 5 percent student in the eye and tell them that they can’t qualify for college grants because their police officer dad and their teacher mother make too much money.  That student then gets saddled with loans that they didn’t deserve.  And furthermore, we teach them to start to question exactly what are they working so hard for. 

Merit should matter more.  In fact, I think merit should be the only thing that matters.  According to the HC, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is starting to think so as well, and I applaud them for considering new rules that will put less emphasis on a student’s income background and more emphasis on their net-worth to the classroom.