Back in the fall of 2008, a study group released a set of bold recommendations for changing the federal financial-aid system. Some of the ideas proposed by the “Rethinking Student Aid” group were popular with policy makers, but nobody knew what the students and parents intended to benefit from the changes actually thought about them.
A new report, released Wednesday by the College Board, which coordinated the independent study group, tries to change that. Some of its findings aren’t a big surprise: While many moderate- and low-income families believed college was important, many thought it was unaffordable and that applying for aid was time-consuming.
But others provide a new window on how parents and students think about college costs. Among respondents, the most popular proposal was one to have the government send tax filers information each year on how much their children would qualify for in Pell Grants if they were currently in college, as well as cost information for public institutions in their state, and information on other kinds of financial aid.
Close to 90 percent of surveyed parents, and even higher percentages of students, were “very” or “somewhat” supportive. Seventy-two percent of adult students who responded said they would have completed their education sooner if this information had been provided to them as teenagers.
The feedback provides “a reality check in terms of how these changes would be received,” said Anne Sturtevant, director of enrollment services and access initiatives with the College Board and one of the report’s authors.
The new report, “Cracking the Student Aid Code: Parent and Student Perspectives on Paying for College,” is based on surveys and focus groups of parents and students who were asked about their views on the federal aid system as well as the group’s proposals. The report was designed to seek input especially from parents of modest financial means, students who planned to attend college but did not go or dropped out, nontraditional students, and advocates for immigrant families.
The survey of parents found that smaller shares of those who had less education, were lower income, or were Latino said they were familiar with the Pell Grant, the federal government’s main grant aid for low-income students. One group that was well aware of Pell Grants was nontraditional students: Three-quarters of respondents in that group had used them to help pay for college.
Support for Proposals
In general, respondents were supportive of the Rethinking Student Aid proposals.
A majority of those surveyed supported the group’s suggestion that the federal government contribute to savings accounts for low- and moderate-income children. About three-quarters of parents and traditional-age students and 81 percent of older students were “very supportive” or “somewhat supportive” of that proposal. While most respondents liked this idea, a smaller share were “very supportive,” which the authors of the report suggest may reflect their concerns about how the proposal would affect financial-aid eligibility, and about the government’s ability to pay for it.
Another proposal, eliminating the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and instead assessing eligibility for aid based on tax documents, received “cautious” support, the report says. The vast majority of parents, younger students, and older students supported the proposal, but only 34 percent of parents, 19 percent of younger students, and 30 percent of older ones were “very supportive.” That finding was a surprise to the authors, who expected families to be excited to get rid of the Fafsa form.
Focus-group participants liked that the proposal would make applying for aid simpler, do away with the financial-aid application password, and make it more difficult for people to cheat the system. Focus-group participants also realized this system would help students whose families refuse to provide them with tax information or who are dysfunctional. However, they were concerned that a tax return might not be nuanced enough to show a family’s situation, especially if something had changed. They also worried that the IRS could make mistakes and that the tax filer would lose control of who sees his or her tax data.
Both survey respondents and focus-group participants liked the idea of using tax data to determine aid eligibility if there were a mechanism for letting the U.S. Department of Education know that the family’s circumstances had changed since tax time; if families could review the information before it was sent to the department; and if they knew the department had the same privacy guidelines as the IRS.
Some of these concerns point to families’ lack of familiarity with the current aid process, the authors said. Students can already let colleges know if last year’s taxes no longer reflect their income, which allows colleges to consider adjusting their aid.
Focus-group participants were less-than-certain about the group’s proposal that the government increase what students can borrow from it for college. Members of the focus groups expressed concern about taking on debt at a time of high unemployment, and many said they knew people who had gotten in over their heads when it came to debt. However, 87 percent of parents, 89 percent of traditional students, and 90 percent of nontraditional students surveyed were “very” or “somewhat” supportive of the proposal.
The report’s authors hope this feedback will help guide government conversations about changing the financial-aid system. “We think it’s a good opportunity to reinvigorate the discussion about some of our proposals,” said Kathleen Little, senior adviser for student-aid policy for the College Board, who was part of the study group and is an author of the new report.
The report is based on input from eight in-person and two online focus groups, six interviews with advocacy group leaders, a survey of 1,000 parents, a survey of 1,000 traditional-age students, and a survey of 250 nontraditional students. The focus groups and surveys were conducted in the fall of 2009.