American higher education faces some serious problems--but they are not the ones most people think. In this brief and accessible book, two leading experts show that many so-called crises--from the idea that typical students are drowning in debt to the belief that tuition increases are being driven by administrative bloat--are exaggerated or simply…

Discusses how a long recession will increase students' need for financial assistance, but that unfortunately, institutions are unlikely to cut back on merit aid to do more for the neediest students. (EV)

The relationship between the "need-blind" philosophy of college admission and institutional student financial aid policies is examined. The ethics of providing less-capable students with higher debt and workloads, and other policies that apply differential aid packaging for higher-risk students, are called into question. (MSE)

This paper analyzes the merits of proposals to encourage saving for college by permitting families to use funds accumulated in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA's) to pay postsecondary education expenses. The paper argues that tax treatment of such expenditures might parallel that for expenditures of IRA's for retirement purposes--deferring tax…

Since the early 1980s, college tuitions have soared, and state and federal governments have sought new ways to help students and families meet the costs of attendance. Annual state and federal appropriations to traditional student aid programs have more than doubled in the past two decades. In addition, the federal government created the Hope…

Discusses data that indicate that students' academic promise is increasingly influencing even the amount of "need-based" aid they receive, signaling that families' demonstrated financial need is of less importance than they may expect when they fill out all those financial aid forms. (EV)

This book examines issues in the provision of student financial aid within the context of continuing changes in governmental student aid policies and private sector decisions resulting in larger and larger shares of the cost of higher education being borne by individuals and their families. The two chapters of Part 1 first review the role student…

This book evaluates the role of federal and state legislatures in subsidizing higher education and keeping college affordable for Americans of all economic and social backgrounds. It provides evidence to examine whether America's financial resources are being used as effectively as possible in higher education investments. Further, it examines the…

This report examines the decade of change in the U.S. system of finance for higher education, which has resulted in a set of programs and policies that are highly responsive to the demands of middle- and upper-income families for help but which are less well equipped to respond to the needs of lower-income families for assistance with their…