This report analyzes data from 2001-2017 to examine public four-year universities' spending on financial aid dollars--specifically between non-need-based and need-based aid. Our researcher found that these universities have spent nearly $32 billion of their own financial aid dollars on students who lack financial need, according to an analysis New…

Students and families confront a detrimental lack of information and transparency when making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives: paying for college. The report analyzed thousands of financial aid award letters and found not only that financial aid is insufficient to cover the cost of college for many students, but also that…

The last several years has seen significant cuts to federal student aid funding to shore up the budget of the Pell Grant program, the primary source of government aid to low-income students. But in this paper, the author argues that there's a better way to keep the Pell Grant program viable: elimination of the American Opportunity Tax Credit and…

This report examines U.S. Department of Education data showing the average net price for students from families making $30,000 or less at more than 1,400 four-year colleges in the 2013-14 academic year. The analysis finds that hundreds of colleges expect the neediest to pay an amount that equals more than half of their families' yearly earnings.…

The federal financial aid system is no longer up to today's demands. Built in a different era, its haphazard evolution over the decades has made it inefficient, poorly targeted, and overly complicated. With the need for higher education never greater and college growing increasingly unaffordable, students deserve a streamlined aid system that is…

This report examines U.S. Department of Education data showing the net price -- the average amount of money that students and their families have to pay after all grant and scholarship aid is deducted from the listed price -- for low-income students at more than 1,400 four-year colleges in the 2011-12 academic year. The analysis finds that…

Explores how a dispute between the U.S. Department of Education and Saint Louis University over alleged misuse of professional judgment in the awarding of over 2,000 Pell grants could change how campus officials handle students' financial aid requests. (EV)

Reports evidence that the federal government's three campus-based student aid programs are no longer serving needy students well, but rather benefit a select group of institutions. Urges changing the 20-year-old financial aid formula to better reflect changing college demographics. Contrasts aid received by students attending the University of…

This article discusses exclusive deals between colleges and student-loan providers and the U.S. Education Department's initial move to solve the conflict. The Higher Education Act, which governs most federal student-aid programs, prohibits colleges from requiring their students to borrow from a specific bank or student-loan company. The law does…

Discusses how President Bush's 2004 budget proposal would erase the shortfall in Pell Grants, but many programs would receive no increases, and two would be eliminated. (EV)

Reports on continued growth of Sallie Mae, the nation's largest financer of federal student loans. Notes the company's purchase of the USA Group, the nation's largest student loan guarantee agency, competition with the federal direct loan program, political contributions to legislators who set loan policies, and development of Laureate, a…

Introduces A. Lee Fritschler, the new Assistant Secretary leading the Office of Postsecondary Education at the Department of Education. Notes that although the position has lost power and influence since the rise of the department's "performance-based organization" unit which runs student aid programs, Fritschler and others see…

If some lawmakers and community college leaders have their way, the amount of federal aid received by students at elite private colleges may be reduced. Private colleges say they will fight to protect federal aid that other institutions want for needy students. (SLD)

Discusses the "student work penalty" that occurs when students earn too much money to remain eligible for federal financial aid and describes some efforts to overturn this denial of eligibility. Community college students, who are likely to work, are particularly vulnerable to this denial of aid. (SLD)

Discusses how the direct-lending program, popular with colleges, may be doomed; a lawsuit and changing political fortunes pose threats to the system. (EV)