While the kind of support provided by programs such as COACH and GEAR-UP can have a major impact on youngsters’ lives, most low-income students also need more financial aid. There is no escaping the fact that money is a huge factor in determining whether students go to college, where they go and whether they stay. As the Advisory Committee’s Brian Fitzgerald says: “Finances matter, especially to low-income students. No matter how well prepared they are, you can’t guarantee them access unless you guarantee them financing.”
Pell Grants, which provide financial support for needy students, were to be the main engine of access and choice. But the purchasing power of Pell Grants has diminished over time, limiting students’ opportunities and options. A 2001 increase in the maximum Pell Grant (from $3,750 to $4,000) boosted the grant’s purchasing power somewhat, but the maximum award would have to almost double for purchasing power to be fully restored. In its 2002 report, /Losing Ground/, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education points out that the average Pell Grant covered only 57 percent of tuition at a typical four-year college in 1998 — down from 98 percent in 1986.
Some critics blame colleges and universities for the decline in the purchasing power of the grants. They argue that colleges and universities have ratcheted up tuition at an unreasonably rapid rate. And the numbers clearly are climbing dramatically. In another report, /Measuring Up 2002/, the National Center cites a sobering list of recent tuition hikes on public campuses in several states: an average increase of 21 percent in Kansas, 19 percent in Iowa,16 percent at four-year public institutions in Washington state.
Nationally, according to the College Board’s most recent annual survey (October 2002), tuition and fees at public, four-year institutions increased an average of nearly 10 percent between 2001 and 2002. Four-year state schools weren’t the only ones to show significant one-year tuition hikes. The College Board also reported a 5.8 percent average increase at private, four-year schools; a 7.9 percent hike at public, two-year institutions, and a 7.5 percent jump at private, two-year schools. The survey also found that during the last decade, a period of low inflation, tuition at the nation’s colleges and universities — public and private — has increased 38 percent. By any measure, tuition has increased much more rapidly than household income. The /Losing Ground/ report notes that “tuition at public four-year colleges and universities represented 13 percent of income for low-income families in 1980. In 2000, tuition at these colleges and universities equaled 25 percent of their income.”
