The federal policymakers have developed an interest in addressing the problem of college affordability facing students in the United States. The federal programs have tried to address this issue through the provision of direct grant funding to students in different regions. Additionally, the federal government is also concerned with the need for ensuring that states are adopting a program designed to offer additional financial aid and prices to increase the number of students accessing high education. Despite these efforts, prices in the United States continue to rise, making it difficult for students to attend higher educational institutions (Doyle & Pingel, 2016). The continuous increase in college and university fees indicates that there is a failure of the program to achieve the set goals. As a result, state and federal funding for student financial aid has been applied in ensuring that there is direct involvement of the federal government in supporting state designed funding. In this program, the federal government has to play a role in regulating and providing incentives.
State financial aid program for higher education students has remained a stable approach for all states. The effectiveness of this program can be witnessed in the fiscal year 2014, when states offered approximately $11.7 billion that served the interests of about 4.5 million students (Doyle & Pingel, 2016). This information indicates that the financial aid program is one of the essential sources of funds for aiding students in need of pursuing post-secondary education. For the period between 2010 and 2014, the state financial aid expenditure decreased by only 1.6%, compared to fluctuations in other support programs that were put in the same region (Doyle & Pingel, 2016). As a result, the effectiveness of this program has attracted the interest of different people in an attempt to ensure that students receive a quality education. The reasons for supporting this Program is varied, ranging from political to practical implications of the policy in ensuring that there is development through education support.
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The Rationale for the Program
State and Federal Funding for Student Financial Aid program are designed to ensure that there is the development of mechanisms designed to achieve four different goals in the country. For instance, the Program aims at creating access and equity in accessing higher education. Education is perceived to be a tool for promoting equality and commitment in ensuring that people develop skills for developing projects and accessing information and strategies that could be applied in acquiring developmental projects (Delaney, 2014). Offering financial support by the state and federal government creates a chance for minimizing the gap between low income and high-income earners in the region. The effectiveness of this process used by some states occurs because the programs offer financial aid based on the needs of the person. For example, New York is recognized as one of the well-recognized regions that offer need-based financial assistance in the country. This approach indicates that state and federal government policies are designed in such a way that students from disadvantaged backgrounds receive a relatively higher amount of income compared to those from privileged families. This strategy also applies to the cost of the institution and course that a student chooses to pursue.
State and Federal Funding for Students Financial Aid is a process designed in such a way that they support students to pursue an education in educational institutions of their choice. The program is centred on choice emphasize to decrease the price difference between private and public institutions. Cost is one of the challenges witnessed in the situation where students chose to attend public or private schools. Differences in budgetary allocation based on student choice becomes a strategic approach for enabling people to form different regions to access education through private or public post-secondary schools. As a result, there is a possibility that student who obtains knowledge through some sectors receive high funds compared to those in other areas. Minnesota is one of the states that offer choice in its policy. In effect, the program provides approximately $220 million to about 95,000 students in the region. Only 34% of the grants support students attending non-profit organizations such as public institutions while the average amount supports learners in private schools (Delaney, 2014). In effect, fewer students pursuing a four-year course receive higher funds of state budgetary allocation compared to a large number of students pursuing two-year courses.
The effectiveness of a choice based program reveals through a situation where the government creates an opportunity for providing students with many educational institutions that serve their interests. In effect, there is a guarantee that state and federal funding for student financial aid program utilizes the full capacity of private and public institutions (Education Commission of the States, 2015). This approach increases the possibility of creating fairness and equity for both private and public institutions. However, the policy is perceived to be a source of inequity as the program allocates funds to some institutions as opposed to others. The current distribution of resources indicates that partnership between state and federal government is offering financial support to students is effective compared to previous years.
State and Federal Funding for Student Financial Aid also act as an avenue through which state and federal government rewards students for excellent academic performance. The major shift witnessed in the modern state and federal government support is ensuring that there is the development of a strategy that is designed to provide that there is an application of the merit-based approach in budgetary allocation for student support finance (Mitchell, Leachman, & Masterson, 2016). This approach applies to financial support programs offered by small financial support groups and the sate allocation of funds. For instance, a financial support program in Georgia began providing merit-based financial support in the year 1992, thus increasing an opportunity for achieving development through education financial support.
Questions associated with State and Federal Funding for Student Financial Aid
Though several changes have been put in place to improve the performance of the program, several questions ought to be answered. For instance, there is an interest in understanding how the proposed changes are capable of improving the core values of the federal state (Mitchell, Leachman, & Masterson, 2016). How can the proposed changes ensure that the federal and state governments achieve the developmental objectives?
The federal government offers financial support to students to ensure that people receive equal opportunities for achieving an education. However, policymakers ought to understand the appropriate mechanism for understanding the strategy that is designed to achieve balance in achieving federal goals (Turner, 2017). This context raises the question, what is the appropriate balance between achieving national goals and allowing discretion among the policymakers?
Equity also calls for a need for ensuring that the state effort recognizes people in less privileged regions. As a result, it is interesting to answer the question, where are the areas of greatest need? Do the current state efforts cover such sections? This question ought to address the strategy used by the state to keep track of the most vulnerable regions and ways applied in allocating state budgetary incentives.
References
Delaney, J. A. (2014). The role of state policy in promoting college affordability. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 655(1), 56-78.
Doyle, W. R., & Pingel, S. (2016). Better Together? State and Federal Funding for Student Financial Aid. Federal & State Teamed Funding Report. Education Commission of the States.
Education Commission of the States. (2015). 50-State financial aid database. Denver, CO: ECS. Retrieved from: www.ecs.org.
Mitchell, M., Leachman, M., & Masterson, K. (2016). Funding down, tuition up. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 15.
Turner, L. J. (2017). The economic incidence of federal student grant aid. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 1000.
