Rise in student aid

As state appropriations for higher education have increased in recent years, their investment in student financial aid has also grown, rising by 8.8 percent during the 1998-99 academic year, according to an April report by the National Association of Student Grant and Aid Programs. Adjusted for inflation, funding levels for student aid have risen by 47 percent since 1994.

Financial need determines the bulk of state aid. But merit-based aid programs, while still accounting for less than 20 percent of total state scholarship money, are expanding more quickly than need-based support.

The trend toward merit-based aid has left both South Dakota and Alaska without any need-based programs, and both Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia recently scaled back such aid.

But not all states are following this trend; fourteen states increased appropriations for need-based scholarships, which rose overall by 6.6 percent.

Copyright American Association of University Professors Jul/Aug 2000
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