University Business - April 2009 - (Page 23)

FINANCIAL AID A New Student Aid Era Increasing college access and success a priority for new administration By Haley Chitty T DIDN’T TAKE PRESIDENT Obama long to follow through on his campaign promise to make higher education more aﬀordable for students and families. Within his ﬁrst 50 days in oﬃce his administration worked closely with Congress to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500 as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. e American Recovery and Reinvestment Act also included a partially refundable $2,500 tax credit for higher education expenses and $200 million to expand the Federal Work-Study program. e ﬁnancial aid community has praised the eﬀorts of the Obama administration and Congress to provide this signiﬁcant boost for ﬁnancial aid. “We are truly grateful to President Obama and his administration for ﬁghting to get this bill passed with meaningful increases in ﬁnancial aid for needy students,” says Philip Day, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. e student aid funding in the stimulus bill was a welcome surprise, but President Obama was just getting started. A NEW FUNDING PRIORITY In his speech to Congress on February 24, Obama made it clear that increasing college access and success would continue to be a top priority, pledging that by 2020, “America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” Accomplishing this would be no small feat. ere’s a widening gap between other countries’ college graduation rates and I While other countries are getting better at providing higher education, the U.S. has remained stagnant. the rate that the United States graduates college students. e U.S. college completion rate is 15th among 29 developed countries, according to “Measuring Up 2008,” a study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education (http://measuringup2008.highereducation.org). e United States, along with the Netherlands and Korea, currently awards 18 certiﬁcates and degrees for every 100 students enrolled. Switzerland, Japan, and Australia lead the world, awarding 26 certiﬁcates and degrees for every 100 students. e report suggests that other countries are getting better at providing higher education while the United States has remained stagnant. We have the secondhighest percentage (39 percent) of 35- to 64-year-olds with at least an associate degree. Canada leads the world with 44 percent. e percentage of 25- to 34-yearolds in the United States with at least an associate degree is also 39 percent, but we are behind nine other countries in this category. Canada also leads this category with 55 percent. e numbers suggest that the nation will not be able to achieve Obama’s goal by maintaining current practices. “ e time for tweaking the student aid system has come and gone,” Day said. “We now need a drastic overhaul of the system to help today’s student overcome ﬁnancial barriers that keep them from successfully completing a higher education program after high school.” Recognizing this fact, the Obama administration issued a budget blueprint for the 2010 ﬁscal year that proposes some dramatic changes for the nation’s student ﬁnancial aid programs, including: • Making the Pell Grant program a mandatory spending program so it is not subject to the annual budget process and automatically increasing the maximum award every year by the Consumer Price Index plus 1 percent. • Eliminating the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and originating all student loans through the federally run Direct Loan program. • Dramatically increasing funding for Federal Perkins Loans. • Creating a $2.5 billion Access and Completion Incentive Fund to support innovative federal-state partnerships to help low-income students complete their college education. “President Obama’s new budget proposal outlines the most dramatic Haley Chitty is assistant director of communications at NASFAA, www.nasfaa.org. universitybusiness.com April 2009 | 23 http://measuringup2008.highereducation.org http://measuringup2008.highereducation.org http://www.nasfaa.org http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - April 2009

University Business - April 2009
Contents
Editor's Note
Company Index
Advisory Board
College Index
Behind the News
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Internet Technology
Financial Aid
The Main Event
Software Serves
Managing the Experience
Independent Outlook
What's New
End Note

University Business - April 2009