College students will get more financial aid from the federal government, thanks to the recently enacted economic stimulus package.
But the increased government support won’t solve all the students’ college-money troubles, caution some local financial aid officers and government officials.
“Cost is a huge barrier for college students,” said Abigail Gardner, spokeswoman for Rep. Dan Maffei (D-DeWitt). “The stimulus package will not be a quick fix for college students, but it will help.”
The money for the additional aid for college students comes from the $787.2 billion economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama in February. Rep. Maffei was among the 246 House Democrats who voted for the stimulus package.
For college students, say supporters of the stimulus package, the measure aims to tackle two intertwined problems: rising tuition and the debt that students take on to pay for college.
Nationally, college tuition is increasing each year. The average cost of a year’s tuition at a private four-year college is $25,143—a 5.9 percent increase from last year. The average cost of a year’s tuition at a public four-year college is $6,585—an increase of 6.4 percent from last year, according to the College Board. Every year, 400,000 students decide to delay going to a four-year college because they cannot afford it, according to the Department of Education.
And college students graduate with more debt from student loans than ever before. The average student graduates from a four-year college with about $20,000 of debt, according to the College Board.
Supporters of the stimulus package say it will lower students’ debt by providing more financial aid to more students and by increasing a tuition tax credit. “This law provides critical emergency relief to make college more affordable and accessible,” says Melissa Salmanowitz, spokeswoman for the House Education and Labor Committee.
But some local financial aid officials are not sure that the money will make enough difference for students faced with high tuition costs.
“When a family is making a decision about whether they can afford to send their child to school, I don’t know if these changes will really change their decision,” says Bill Cheetham, director of financial aid at Le Moyne College, a private, four-year college in Syracuse. “It just might not be enough money to suddenly make it possible to afford college.”
In the stimulus package, a few measures directly aimed at easing the financial burden of college tuition include:
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Federal Pell Grants for low- and middle-income students.
For the 2009-2010 school year, the maximum Pell Grant will increase by $500 to be $5,350. This increase will help an estimated 7 million low- and middle-income students, according to the House Education and Labor Committee.
Pell Grants are the largest source of federal money for college financial aid. Nationally, about 5.5 million students received Pell Grants for the 2008-2009 school year.
At Syracuse University, the largest private, four-year college in Syracuse, about 2,700 of the about 12,000 undergraduate students received Pell Grants in the 2007-2008 school year. The average award for those students was $3,000. At Le Moyne, about 800 of the 2,200 students received Pell Grants for the current school year. The Pell Grant award at Le Moyne for this school year is about $3,125. At Onondaga Community College, about 2,590 of the about 7,400 degree-seeking students received Pell Grants this school year. Financial aid officials at OCC did not have information about the average Pell Grant award. The Syracuse area does not have a four-year public college.
Financial aid officers say this increase provides only minimal help for a program that has been under-funded for years. “At this point, this funding is just replacing lost money from this program in previous years,” said Cheetham, Le Moyne College’s financial aid director.
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Work-study program for low- and middle-income students.
Nationally, the package commits $200 million to the work-study program, which provides part-time jobs at school for students. This money will create part-time jobs for an additional 133,000 students, according to the House Education and Labor Committee. That’s a 20 percent increase over this school year’s federal work-study money.
Work-study is available to students whose families cannot afford to pay the entire tuition.
At Syracuse University in the 2007-2008 school year, about 2,800 students were in the work-study program out of about 18,000 undergraduate and graduate students. On average each gets about $1,000. SU financial aid officials are not sure how much of the additional work-study money the school will receive.
“We just have to wait and see how it affects us,” said Kaye Devesty, director of financial aid at SU.
At Le Moyne College, about 400 of the 2,200 students receive work-study. Students on average earn about $750 to $900 per semester for work-study. Financial aid officials at Le Moyne say that they have demand for much more work-study money. There is a need for funding for students about two to three times larger than the amount of aid the school receives for work-study. But they doubt this increase will have much of an effect at Le Moyne.
“Unfortunately, while the overall impact of these funds will help many students, the additional support at any one institution will be small,” says Cheetham, Le Moyne’s director of financial aid.
At Onondaga Community College, about 85 to 90 students out of about 7,000 degree-seeking students benefit from the work-study program. The work-study funding each school gets depends on a formula based on the tuitions, enrollment numbers and financial needs of the students. But the school’s work-study program is limited by the funding it receives, say OCC officials.
“We might have more students who qualify for work-study,” says Kim Court, spokeswoman at OCC. “But we can only cover so many with the funding we get, so it’s on a first-come, first-serve basis.”
Court could not say how many students get turned away from the work-study program.
Work-study students put in 10-15 hours per week. They often do clerical work at various campus offices, including residence life, admissions and public affairs, or work in dining halls.
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Tax credit and partial refund for families paying tuition.
The measure boosts the tuition tax credit from $1,800 to $2,500 for families with incomes of less than $180,000 per year.
In a new provision, the measure provides a $1,000 refund for tuition costs for families who earn so little that they are exempt from taxes. For example, a two-parent family with one child in college and one younger would get the partial refund if their joint yearly income is less than $41,257.
The partial refund extends the benefit of the tax credit to about four million more students, according to the House Education and Labor Committee.
But financial aid officials say this money only helps after the family or student has already made the financial investment to go to school.
“This money is given on the back end after the student has already made the decision to go to school,” said Cheetham of Le Moyne. “It would be nice if the money could be fronted somehow, so it would be available when the family is trying to make the decision about investing in a college education.”
Despite the remaining gaps, supporters praise the new funding as a good start for helping students. “Every bit helps,” says Gardner, spokeswoman for Rep. Maffei. “I think the students would rather have it than not.”
(Laura Brandon is a senior with dual majors in newspaper journalism and political science.)
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