State eyes shifting of college aid to neediest
Middle-class students would lose some grants
FRAMINGHAM -- Financial aid for Massachusetts' neediest college students would be increased, and some state grants available to middle-class students would be eliminated, under a draft proposal aimed at helping low-income students attend college.
Under the proposal, made public yesterday by the state chancellor of higher education, $51 million would be diverted from two state grant programs that serve both lower-income and middle-class students and would be combined with the $25 million in the Mass Grant program, which is solely for low-income students from families with incomes under $36,000. That would allow the Mass Grant program to give every low-income student $3,600 a year, essentially the cost of attending a community college. The neediest students now get an average of about $1,600 to attend community college.
Chancellor Judith Gill said that cuts in state support for higher education in recent years have left only enough money to aid the neediest students, and that she hoped legislators would increase the financial aid budget next year to allow state education officials to restore grants to middle-class students.
Higher education officials could not say how many middle-class students would be affected by the proposal. This year, some 41,500 students received Gilbert and Access grants, the two programs that would be phased out. They are available to students who can demonstrate financial need under a complicated formula. Still, some students with family incomes of up to $80,000 can qualify for the Gilbert grant, for example.
Representative Kevin Murphy, the House chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, said in an interview yesterday that he had not been consulted by education officials before they announced their proposal, and he reacted angrily to the suggestion that the Legislature had not adequately supported state colleges and universities.
''If they are talking about the Legislature not ponying up, you'd think they'd have at least the courtesy of talking to me about this before going public with it," he said, noting that the Legislature is considering a bill to earmark $100 million for higher education capital projects. ''I am sort of saddened that they would float the idea without at least giving me the opportunity to review it first."
The proposal, state higher education officials cautioned, is preliminary and requires further analysis. It would require approval from both the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education and the Legislature. If approved, the new grant system could be in effect as early as next fall.
A spokeswoman for Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday that she couldn't comment until the governor's office had reviewed the proposal.
Massachusetts gave out $100 million this year in need-based aid to both public and private college students through three grant programs, no-interest loans, and tuition waivers. Even as tuition and fees at private and public state schools have increased, funding for the Mass Grant program has decreased in recent years by $20 million, state education officials said. According to the Board of Higher Education, 27,276 low-income students received Mass Grants in 2005 compared with 35,107 in 2000. During that same period, residents enrolling in Massachusetts colleges and universities grew by approximately 5,000, according to the board's figures.
''We believe we need to take those individuals in the lowest income group and ensure that they have access," Gill said as she laid out the proposal at a meeting before the Board of Higher Education yesterday in Framingham.
She said one way to provide more assistance to middle-class students would be to expand the $6 million no-interest loan program, and that with an extra $15 million appropriation by the Legislature, she would like to offer loan forgiveness for graduates who take jobs in high-need areas in the state.
Stephen P. Tocco, the chairman of the board, was skeptical of the plan, saying he questioned the wisdom of shifting aid from middle-class to low-income students.
''I am fearful that if we overhaul the system -- unless we get a lot more money -- we'll be taking money away from the middle class, and the lower middle class is often just as much at risk. . . . I want to make sure we are not putting a lot of people at risk with a fix."
Some financial aid specialists said the proposal was a mistake because it would punish some needy students to benefit even-needier ones.
''It will probably mean a face-off between the poorest families and the lower middle-class families," said Bob Giannino-Racine executive director of ACCESS, a nonprofit organization that advises students in Boston public schools on how to pay for college. ''It seems to me like this is just going to perpetuate less advantaged families being left behind in higher education."
Others said the proposal was a reasonable response to a difficult situation.
Patrick Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, said that if a state has only a fixed amount of money for aid, the best policy is to give large grants to the neediest students, without which they would not attend college at all, rather than giving larger numbers of students grants too small to affect their choice.
''They are probably making the best decision they can with the resources they have," he said.
Callan's California-based group last week released a study that predicted that the percentage of Massachusetts workers with a college degree will decrease in the next 15 years unless the state improves the college-going rates of Latinos and African Americans.
One school that could be affected by the proposed changes is Northeastern University, which is a major recipient of Gilbert Grant money, according to Clantha McCurdy, the state's assistant vice chancellor for student financial aid.
Gill said the effect on Northeastern students would be positive.
But Seamus Harreys, dean of student financial services at Northeastern, reacted with dismay yesterday to the board's proposal. The loss of the Gilbert Grant could mean the end of a Northeastern education for a student whose family earns more than $36,000 but less than $50,000, he said.
''It will be very difficult for that individual student to persist at Northeastern," he said.
Northeastern receives about $1.8 million each year from the Gilbert Grant program, and uses it for grants that average $2,000 to about 900 students, all in the $50,000-or-below income category.
''We should be looking at floating all boats," he said. 