This month, the Congressional Research Service revealed that the Department of Education's revised financial aid formula would prevent 84,000 formerly eligible students from receiving Pell grants and decrease the amount awarded by $270 million. Pell grants are need-based federal grants for disadvantaged students seeking undergraduate-level education. Eligibility and size are calculated using a complex formula involving income, assets, marital status, number of children and taxes -- and therein lies the rub. The formula is based on tax data from 2000, before many state and local governments raised taxes to deal with soaring budget deficits.\n Still following? Okay, forget the admissions office gobbledygook, here's the skinny: tuition is rising, the economy is dragging along like an overfed dachshund, yet it's getting harder for low-income students to get federal support. In the revised formula, students and/or parents are considered to be paying lower taxes than they actually are. Worse, other types of need-based aid, like state or university grants, use the same formula. Brian K. Fitzgerald of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance calls this "a ripple effect" (The New York Times, July 18). \nWe just call it "ouch." \nIU officials aren't sure how big this change's impact might be. However, a hint might be the National Center for Education Statistics' report that 14 percent of IU students received federal grants during the 2000-2001 term, which revolve around the Pell, according to the Federal Student Aid Web site. The percentage affected could rise counting state and institutional grants, but how much is uncertain from the NCES data. \nAs for how big of a change, Nick Vesper of the State Student Assistance Commission of Indiana told the Herald-Times, "It's most likely going to raise the expected parental contribution by 4 to 5 percent."\nClearly, making college less affordable for low-income students is wrong, and we'd like to point out a culprit to pillory (metaphorically speaking). But the sad fact is, like in Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express," almost everyone's guilty. Democrats blame the Republicans for not allocating more funds (Los Angeles Times, July 19). Republicans blame Democrats for not holding universities accountable for tuition costs (The Hill, July 23). According to "The Access Challenge: Rethinking the Causes of the New Inequality" by IU Professor Edward P. St. John, the Pell's purchasing power has been decreasing since 1975, through democratic and republican administrations and democratic and republican congresses. So, we can blame both. \nMeanwhile, in their competition, universities (public and private) have let labor and technology costs run wild. We can blame them. State governments allowed their deficits to explode, then raised taxes, skewing the financial aid formula, simultaneously slashing support for higher education. We can blame them, too.\nFinally, we as students can blame ourselves. We seldom turn out to vote, and when we do apply political pressure, we rarely sustain it. After marching in front of someone's office for a day, we go sip lattes and bask in our righteousness, then wonder why nothing changes.
-- Brian McFillen for the Editorial Board
