(MintPress) — The Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) has signaled that it has run out of the need-based Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants for college students for the upcoming fall, the earliest the fund has depleted in the state. Across the nation, states are struggling to maintain student grants in light of higher enrollments, increases in tuition and economic hardships seen in the workforce.
In Illinois, MAP grants will provide up to nearly $5,000 in awards for upwards of 145,000 students who qualify for the aid. The Chicago Tribune reports that an estimated 140,000 students eligible for the aid will not receive any funding. Illinois governor Pat Quinn has looked into injecting another $50 million into the $387 million program, which would allow for another 35,000 students to receive the financial aid, but still leaving over 100,000 students without funds.
John Samuels, spokesman for ISAC, told the Chicago Tribune that the early fund depletion is “a sign of incredible demand more than anything else.” He said 40,000 more students applied for the aid this year compared to last year. Five years ago, students were able to apply for the grants as late as August and still be awarded with financial aid.
Illinois is currently ranked 44th in the country with a 9.4 percent unemployment rate, more than one percent higher than the 8.3 percent nationwide jobless rate. Of the state’s nearly 13 million residents, 1.82 million live in poverty, according to the most recent census data – the most in Illinois since 1992.
Andrew Gillen with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, said in an interview with MintPress that lower incomes and poverty levels are the culprit for the wave of students applying for need-based financial aid.
“It’s been a trend ever since the recession started,” Gillen said. “Having so many more people unemployed or having their income somehow reduced really swelled the number of students applying for these need-based awards. So hopefully as the economy recovers, it will be less of an issue.”
Illinois is also struggling not only with unemployment, but underemployment as well. With poverty levels rising in the state, more students in poor families qualify for need-based grants and financial aid. Scott Allard, an assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Illinois will continue to have high unemployment, which, in turn, will keep poverty levels stubbornly high.
“The significant increases in poverty that we see in this data reflect a stagnant economy, an economy where workers, particularly those at the lower end of the labor market are having a hard time finding a job that can provide for their families,” Allard said. “The economic data suggests that these (poverty) trends aren’t likely to change in the near future.”
Students on the rise
Across the United States, enrollment at public universities is up one-third over the past decade, and 8 percent since 2009. With states increasingly feeling the financial pinch, need-based aid is either being maintained at inadequate levels, or being reduced to make up for budgetary shortfalls.
Julie Leeper, president of the National Association of State Student Grant & Aid Programs (NASSGAP), said in an interview with MintPress that the influx of students entering the enrollment ranks of higher education is not only a reflection of the economy, but it’s also what is creating a shortfall for states in their grant programs.
“I would say that because of the economy it’s true that more and more students are going to school because there’s a need for educated workers because they can’t find jobs otherwise,” Leeper said. “It’s an issue of the number of applications coming in and they’re coming in earlier, and there’s higher need on those applications.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education detailed drastic cuts made by some states to their college grant systems. In 2010, Ohio cut need-based grants by 66 percent. Similar grants were cut by more than half in Alaska and Michigan while both Hawaii and Utah reduced their need-based grant budget by one-third.
In one instance, state aid for college students has been cut altogether. Last year, New Hampshire said its state budget deficit was to blame for eliminating state financial aid for residents going to college. The cuts for students come at a time when New Hampshire has the most expensive public college system in the country.
But on the other end of the spectrum is California, which has increased funding for need-based grants by 19 percent. And in Washington, the program has seen a 7 percent bump. However, that has not necessarily translated into success for the states. Washington saw a 57 percent increase in student aid applications in 2010, forcing the state to turn away around 22,000 students seeking grants.
At the individual college level, the University of North Carolina (UNC) has seen financial aid applications rise consistently by nearly 3,000 from 2008 to 2011, according to its admissions department. The reasoning, they say, is very similar to what the states are saying: families are cash-strapped.
“Students from less affluent backgrounds do not have the luxury of discretion in their choice of college. Without financial aid, there is no choice to be made as the tuition simply cannot be paid,” said Phillip Asbury, UNC’s deputy director of scholarships and student aid.
To counter the increase in students applying for the grants, states are narrowing application deadlines on students, reinforcing the first come, first serve basis of the grants. Oregon, for the second year in a row, has the earliest state deadline at February 1. Oklahoma moved its deadline up two weeks, to March 1.
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, told the Wall Street Journal that the deadline changes are implemented to reduce the number of applications for grants that states receive.
“It’s essentially a technique for reducing the number of students who qualify because not everyone will [apply] on time,” Kantrowitz said.
In his State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama called out states that have “disinvested” in higher education grants, saying they should not rely on the federal government to cover for any gaps and shortfalls left by the states in terms of financial aid for students.
“It’s not enough for us to increase student aid,” Obama said. “We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down.”
Tuition hikes
The need for grants is ever present because of yearly hikes of tuition. In 2011, the average tuition at a public university rose 5.4 percent for in-state students compared to the year prior. The sticker shock comes in many forms: At the University of California, Berkeley, tuition was around $700 in the 1970s. Today, it is over $15,000 per year – a 2,000 percent increase.
Gillen said that some argue there may be a correlation between financial aid given by states and the fluctuation in tuition costs.
“States are generally cutting back on their state support and a lot of people argue that that will lead to higher tuition and that schools are going to want to make up that lost revenue somehow,” Gillen said.
There are many factors as to why tuition seems to increase year-by-year: Increasing costs of health care for faculty and growing prices to maintain facilities are just a couple examples. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, said financial aid grants from both the states and federal governments needs to keep up with soaring tuition hikes because current levels of aid continually have diminished impacts.
“Today a federal Pell Grant covers only about one-third of what it costs for a public four-year college in state,” said Lauren Asher, president of The Institute for College Access and Success in California in an interview with National Public Radio. “In the 1980s it covered about half; in the 1970s it covered more than 70 percent.”
Tuition increases also became a target of the Occupy movement, as protesters in California recently formed an “Occupy Education” group to demonstrate at state campuses.
“We’ve destroyed our tax base and we stopped funding the most important parts of our society,” said Josh Brahinsky, a University of California Santa Cruz graduate student in an interview with Huffington Post. “We’re calling on the state to tax the wealthy and use that money to build services for all of us.”
Leeper said it really boils down to what states value when they are planning out budgets. She said the problem isn’t going anywhere as long as there are students that qualify for need-based grants.
“It will be an issue in all states in respect to budgeting and what kind of priorities they put on education,” Leeper said.
Source: MintPress