crossposted from
unbossed
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has issued a new report on paying for college education.
Details and links below.
The NCES reports that
college costs are up.
In addition, as a result of education and government policies there have been large changes in who gets financial assistance to pay for college. The largest change is a focus on merit aid versus money based on financial need:
State grants were once mainly need based, but the use of merit-based grant programs has grown. In 2002-03, 24 percent of state grants were merit based, compared with 10 percent a decade earlier.
A summary of the findings may be found here.
Why is this happening?
To understand why there has been a shift to merit scholarships (which tend to go to the well-to-do) and away from need scholarships (which go to the not well-to-do - duh!), you have to know about forces that are affecting education . . . that have nothing to do with providing good education.
First, to be clear, in this context, "merit" means grades and scores without taking need into consideration. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against merit and hard work and rewards for them.
What is happening is that US News and other rankings have pitted schools against one another in an arms race to move ever higher in the rankings.
One of the key rankings is grades. Another is test scores. Schools are reacting by trying to buy good students to increase their rankings. Not to improve education, to provide more education, nor for any good educational goal. Schools feel they have no choice in this matter. If they do not provide more merit scholarships and lure more high scoring students, they will sink in the ratings because everyone else is playing this game.
Not only do they throw money at these students, they give them special titles - e.g., Deans Scholars, etc. They often have extra perqs - parties with the dean or other officials as an example.
Few schools have bottomless pots of money. So money given to merit scholarships is often money taken from need scholarships. One other route is to hike up tuition so it is possible to give big merit scholarships and provide aid to the neediest. In this case the students in the middle are the ones bearing the load. Students at the bottom are often getting a financial aid package composed largely of loans and not just flat out grants. Other statistics show that students from poor homes are dropping out and not completing their educations.
One problem is that this perpetuates the current class structure. Students from wealthy families tend to have better scores and grads. Some would say this is based on good genes.
On the other hand, wealthier students will have had many many advantages, including safe neighborhoods, their own rooms, nutritious food, computers and other resources, parents who know the ropes and who push them, letters of recommendation and personal contacts from elite and prestigious people, test prep courses, and on and on.
A sorry state of affairs and worrying for the future of our country and all those we affect.