Should Arizona help pay for your college degree?
If it weren’t for federal loans, few Arizona kids would be able to afford college. That’s the case for students in most states. But Arizona is missing an important resource that most other states have: state-supported aid that students don’t have to pay back after graduation. Lawmakers defunded most grant programs, which never were that robust to begin with, during the Great Recession. The two that remain offer small awards to relatively few students.
The Arizona Board of Regents fills the gap with a policy requiring universities to provide aid for low-income students. But it’s largely supported by tuition — meaning more wealthy students are essentially subsidizing the educations of those with fewer means.
That may seem like a fine arrangement, or at least a better one than taxpayers helping kids through school.
But there are a lot more students who haven’t graduated from high school yet — more than half of Arizona children — who are considered low-income. Their parents have little ability to save for their education.
The future of Pell grants and federally backed college loans also is uncertain. There is pressure to cut federal education spending, and a growing number of politicians argue that funding should be a function of states and the private market.
Sooner or later, the gap between what’s available and what’s needed to pay for college could come back to bite our state, which desperately needs an educated workforce to compete for quality jobs. So, what are we going to do about it? That’s the question College Success Arizona is asking. The organization, which provides scholarships for low-income students, recently released a policy briefing arguing for more-robust statesupported grant aid.
CEO Rich Nickel says private aid is important, but the magnitude of funding needed is more than donors can sustainably provide each year. Consider the breakdown: In fiscal 2016, Arizona college students received $2.4 billion in aid, up from $1.5 billion six years ago. Of that $2.4 billion, roughly $200 million — or about 8 percent — came from private grants and scholarships.
State grant aid comprised $21 million, or less than 1 percent.
And that’s just how it pans out for students who are attending college today. If Arizona is to reach its goal of 60 percent of Arizona adults with college degrees by 2030, the need for additional aid is only going to grow.
I’ll be honest: I’m not wild about getting state government involved in the college-aid game. Even if we had a robust state grant program, there are other factors we must address to produce more students with degrees — including reining in rising tuition costs and closing the sizable achievement gap between rich and poor students.
After all, no amount of grant funding will markedly boost the number of degree holders if students receiving them aren’t academically prepared to handle the coursework.
But I get the reality: We have a large (and growing) student population with no means to pay for school themselves. It’s not smart to saddle these kids with tens of thousands in debt. And even if we get more philanthropists involved to help them, the size of the need dwarfs what they can give.
We need more cash. If there’s a better place than state coffers to get it, I’m all ears.