Low-Income Students

To encourage students to attend college, an increasing number of states are creating policy initiatives designed to help low-income and minority students solve the college access puzzle. The best plans provide support to overcome all of the barriers that these students face-academic preparation, information and guidance, and affordability.

Maine and…

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"Redlining" is a term coined by community activists in 1960s Chicago. It refers to mortgage brokers excluding predominantly black inner-city neighborhoods from getting loans for housing, and by extension, to any discrimination achieved by drawing arbitrary lines.

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As thousands of college students finish their final exams, the summer stretches out before them with an array of possibilities. Some may be daydreaming of beaches, late nights, and even later mornings. But others, a growing majority, are anxiously (net)working to secure the ever valuable summer internship.

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Behind the scenes, Congressional Democrats took a bold step this week that should make it significantly easier for them to fulfill their party's campaign pledge to increase significantly federal spending on need-based grant aid for students from low-income families.

After several weeks…

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When it comes to private student loans, there's a popular myth, perpetuated by the student loan industry, that these loans go solely to middle-income and higher-income students who have excellent credit. Private lenders don't lend to the most financially needy students because these students pose too great a credit risk.

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House Passes Repeal of "Tuition Sensitivity" Rule for Pell Grants

The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would eliminate a provision in federal law that limits the size of the Pell Grants that students at community colleges can receive.…

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As our friends at Education Trust have noted, more and more colleges are using their institutional financial aid dollars to lure the highest achieving students to their campuses.

Under the practice, known in the higher ed world as "financial aid leveraging," colleges take money that would normally go to admitted, but financially needy…

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Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) has introduced an ambitious plan that would overhaul the way in which higher education is financed in the State of Texas. Perry's proposal is to reward colleges for graduating students on time and for improving the academic performance of their students. The plan would provide more financial…

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At a time of staggering growth in risky private borrowing to pay for college, and rising suspicions of questionable marketing practices by private loan companies, the U.S. Department of Education has yet to publish some of the most relevant data on private borrowing. Why?

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America's financial aid system imposes too much debt on college graduates, provides too much taxpayer support to banks making college loans, and demands too little of students assuming them. Last week, Higher Ed Watch staff proposed a new "College Access Contract" that responds to each of these challenges.Our College Access…

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