In this brief, the authors review some of the main goals of state student financial aid programs and provide a few examples of how these programs are organized. They also describe how state programs vary in terms of who benefits. They then discuss various possible designs for joint federal-state policymaking in this area and study their impact. They find that four proposed models come with tradeoffs that result in clear winners and losers among the stakeholders at the federal, state, institutional or student levels. This finding points to the need for further development in conversations surrounding a federalist approach to the provision of financial aid.