Access to higher education
...dents to enroll in math, science and special education programs and to teach in rural or disadvantaged areas of the country ensures the supply of educators to all potential college going students. Beyond the educational system and teacher preparation and training, the HEA also provides for access programming that seeks to enrich traditional or overburdened public education systems. HEA funded access and support programs include TRIO, GEAR UP and the Advanced Placement Incentive Program which seek to increase the college preparation skills and persistence of low income, disabled and first-generation students. US funded studies conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) directed studies have shown the short term, social and long term impact of these access programs. Ongoing data collected by both entities serve to provide information regarding the dynamic need for access programs. Once students are admitted to college financial constraints may discourage an otherwise qualified student from pursuing post-secondary options. Student’s options for post-secondary education become limited when cost becomes a prohibitive factor regardless of high school successes. Financial aid can offset most cost-related restrictions on institutional type whether public or private, four-year or 2-year that a student will consider for enrollment. HEA qualifies distribution and payment of federal student aid. The HEA restricts aid to institutions that meet various eligibility requirements. Students also must meet various eligibility requirements. According to the 2002 Digest of Educational Statistics, forty percent of all students enrolled during the 1999-2000 academic year received federal aid. More than half of all students received some kind of aid. (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d02/tables/dt316.asp). Federal aid provides subsidies to educational institutions and students to reduce student obligation for the cost of education at many institutions. Pell grants, institutional grants, tax credits, guaranteed student loans and direct loan programs provide much needed financial access to students. Upcoming legislation requests lower interest rates, higher grants limits, increased loan forgiveness, simplifying the application for federal financial aid, extending benefits to adult learners, eliminating fees and creating a simpler financial aid formula. From the 2002 Digest of Educational Statistics we can review the use of aid for the past seven years. In 1992 forty-five percent of full-time full-year students received aid. In 1995 and 1999 that figure grew to 55.6 and 57 percent respectively (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d02/tables/dt320.asp). The current bills recommended for the HEA will permit more students to qualify for aid, to take out lower loan amounts and pay off loans in shorter amounts of time. Primarily we are a society of information and services. Students from families with a college background and having higher incomes tend to have access to both college preparation information and resources to pay for college. Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act gives students more choices about how much to spend on their education (access), for how long (persistence) and at what institution (choice). Support for international, graduate and post-secondary education is also included in the HEA reauthorization. Without this legislation many middle to low income students would not pursue postsecondary education at their first-choice school or enroll full-time and for the entire-year. Deciding where the federal government should intervene in matters regarding state funding of higher education, institutional programs and student eligibility for aid is not an easy task. Current legislation that restricts financial aid to students with drug convictions has not supported the war on drugs. Instead, it has kept numbers of students from applying for federal aid and in doing so, from attending post-secondary education. Thousands of students who applied have been denied aid because previous drug convictions. As education is the best weapon against the war on drugs the drug conviction restriction fighting for the wrong side....