Education Reps Defend Federal Financial Aid To College Students

By Adrianna McGinley

Higher education representatives defended federal financial aid programs Wednesday before members of the House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.

Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation for Education, told lawmakers that federal financial aid is a necessary “bedrock” for students, specifically those from low-income households, and said it is in the nation’s best interest to sustain it.

“The challenge is that students and families really are at their limit in terms of their capacity in order to be able to deal with these issues… We can’t afford to reduce the capacity of the system to produce graduates,” Merisotis said. “It is very important to our economic future as a country that we increase the number of highly qualified college graduates in this country.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said she disagreed with the claim that there is a need for more federal aid, citing that with three-fourths of all student aid last year coming from the federal government, many students continue to drown in debt.

“Despite this tremendous taxpayer investment, millions of Americans are still struggling with significant student loan debt burdens,” Foxx said. “Clearly, the rise in the cost of higher education in the United States is a problem, but the answer cannot be found in loan forgiveness gimmicks or a federal takeover of the student loan industry.”

Foxx argued that it would be more beneficial for lawmakers to encourage accountability and for students and parents to “educate themselves about the true costs of attending college.”

Tim Foster, President of Colorado Mesa University, said that, despite the success his university has had in cutting costs and increasing transparency, there is a fine line to walk when balancing the two.

“There’s this two-edged coin, which is affordability and quality,” Foster said. “If we slash quality, I don’t care how affordable it is, if it’s not worth experiencing, then it’s not worth spending time and money on, and the reverse, if it’s high quality and you can’t afford it then obviously it’s absolutely meaningless.”

Jane Wellman, Executive Director of the Delta Project on Postsecondary Costs, Productivity, and Accountability, said there may be a silver lining to the squeeze universities are facing.

“The good thing about this recession has been that we finally, I think, are starting to hit the wall…Institutions have too long believed that more money always was necessary for more quality,” Wellman said. “I think we’re turning the corner.”