Page 8 Thursday, March 28, 1985 The Capitol limes
Most students deserve their aid, study says
(CPS)--Nearly 90 percent of all
student financial aid goes to
students who do need the
money, says a new study which
challenges the Reagan ad
ministration's claims that many
students don't really need their
aid money
The study, undertaken well
before President Reagan
unveiled his proposal to slash
student aid, contradicts
Secretary of Education William
Bennett's charge that too much
aid money goes to students
whose families don't need it,
says University of Wisconsin
Professor Jacob Stampen, who -
conducted the study.
In defending the proposed
cuts at a recent press con
ference, Bennett said the cuts
"might require (students')
stereo divestiture, automobile
divestiture and three-weeks-at
the-beach divestiture," but
otherwise wouldn't hurt
students.
Stamperidismisses Bennett's
comments as "rhetoric target
ted at the middle class."
The study shows very little
aid money is wasted, Stampen
says.
"If you run the administra
tion recommendations through
the study data base," he adds,
"it shows how low-income aid
recipients are hit by the cuts."
"We took an independent
count of the recipients and can
actually represent a more
precise impact on the aid pro
posals," Stampen notes. "The
government can't. They take
aid estimates."
"Stampen did the study.
Bennett talks off the cuff,"
says Scott Miller of the
American Council on Educa
tion (ACE).
The study shows nearly 30
percent of all college students
receive some type of federal,
state, institutional or private
financial aid.
And only about 10 percent of
financial aid awarded in
1983-84 came from such "non
need" programs as Veterans'
Administration funds and merit
scholarships.
About 22 percent of aid
money students got came from
Pell grant, Work-Study and
Supplemental Educational Op
portunity Grant (SEOG)
programs.
Students who got the grants
usually were the neediest
students, the study notes.
To get most other govern
ment grants and loans, students
had to pass stringent needs
analyses, which keep the money
from students who don't need
it, Stampen says.
"Each time experts look at
these programs, they see two
things," Miller adds. "First,
the money goes to the people
who need it, and second, the
programs work."
"Without student aid, lots of
these people wouldn't be in
school," he says.
But, echoing the repeated
criticisms of campus aid direc
tors around the country,
Stampen warns the aid system
is changing even without more
cuts.
The reason is that more aid
money is being loaned instead
of granted, leaving students
deep in debt upon leaving
campus.
Poorer students get most of
the grants, he explains. As
family income rises, more
money is awarded as loans.
Yet, compared to the results
of Stampen's 1981-81 financial
aid study, the amount of money
awarded on the basis of need
this year has plateaued.
"There's a drop in the
number of Pell recipients from
81-82 to 83-84, and a drop in
SEOG," he reports. "The
Work-Study program is up, but
Guaranteed Student Loans are
down."
Consequently, Stampen
predicts low-income students
will be hardest -hit if Congress
approves the latest round of aid
"With a $32,500 limit on
family income, graduate
students and students from
families with more than one
child in college will be af
fected," he asserts.
The $4,000 per student a year
aid cap "depends on income,
but at a very low average fami
ly income, say 25,000 or less, it
would be devastating to cut a
student back to less than $4,000
per year,". Stampen insists.
"That's not the middle class."
Stampen says the Reagan ad
ministration has yet to react to
his data.
"People should deal with
facts rather than myths,"
ACE's Miller agrees. "If the
facts say there's a problem in
student aid, even those of us in
favor of the programs would
work to correct it."
"A small amount of those
receiving aid don't need it," he
admits. "But that's no reason
to kill the program. It's like
throwing out the baby with the
bath water."