Catching up on reading after being out of the office at a workshop, I spotted this article published last week by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico invested $10.3 billion in student financial aid for 2008-09, an increase of about 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report from the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs. The increase was modest compared to one of about 6.6 percent the previous year, and the report cautioned that rocky budget times for the states threaten to eat into that in the future.
It’s funny how long it takes to gather this data and crunch the numbers. These 2008-09 figures are out as we’re about to embark on the 2010-11 academic year, and budgeteers in Washington state already are thinking hard about the 2011-13 biennial budget.
Washington scored as one of the top 10 states for providing need-based aid.
We’ve done incredibly well in helping low-income students pay for college. Since the 2003-05 biennium the state financial aid budget has grown by 62 percent, to $513.2 million—and that’s after a cut of about four percent earlier this year that came mainly out of State Work Study and other smaller aid programs. We have given larger grants to more students. Despite the legislature’s generosity, it hasn’t been enough. About 15,000 students who were eligible for a State Need Grant—because their families earn less, often way less, than $52,000—did not receive grants because the program ran out of cash. Independent colleges, too, have boosted their student aid budgets by 10 percent in each of the last two years, but there’s still unmet need.
The article is correct in warning about possible reductions in the future. Washington faces a projected $3 billion shortfall for next biennium, and may even have to make some budget cuts before the summer is out if anticipated federal dollars to help with Medicare fail to materialize. Student aid was on the cutting block last winter, and could well be again.
More resources
- Table on state aid programs
- National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs
- Full 2008-09 report
