Alternative college financing arrangements for families unable to pay the entire college cost are increasing, including new forms of student employment, cooperative education, entrepreneurship, and new or little-used loan options. (MSE)

Many new loan and scholarship programs are available, most open to middle-income families. State loans and grants are increasingly attractive, aid packages are more likely to include merit scholarships and complex new financing arrangements offered by schools themselves. Families must learn to shop carefully for good, not gimmicky, aid. (MSE)

Girls are only one of several groups that governments in Australia, as in other parts of the world, have recognized as suffering educational disadvantage. The problems of other groups are clear-cut and appropriate action plainly indicated. But in the case of girls, the causes are far more complex, entrenched in society, and education systems have…