MINDY ROSS/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Whether belonging to
students or visitors, expensive cars abound at UCLA.
By Marjorie Hernandez
Daily Bruin Contributor
Financial aid given to underrepresented minority students has
declined since the end of affirmative action, while middle and
upper-middle class families continue to receive ever more financial
aid.
The rise of merit-based awards has made it difficult for
underrepresented students, who traditionally receive need-based
aid, to compete with affluent students.
“Since Proposition 209, we have seen a decline in the
number of students from lower-income backgrounds,” said
Susanne Blessington, senior administrative financial aid analyst
for UCLA. “We’ve seen the parent income going up and
fewer students in the low-income group.”
Affirmative action expanded the opportunities for minority
students by allowing colleges to consider ethnicity in admissions
decisions. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 209,
ending the use of affirmative action in the state’s public
schools.
According to officials from the state Department of Education,
ethnic minority students lost funds since the proposition prohibits
the use of state funds for scholarships based on race, gender or
ethnicity.
Many educators fear that this loss of funds will widen the gap
between those who can and cannot afford college.
“I don’t buy the assumption that low and moderate
income students are taken care of,” said Lawrence Gladieux, a
former executive director of policy analysis for the College Board,
which studies trends in higher education.
“We just aren’t finding the grants to efficiently
offset the burden for students that have the least sources to begin
with,” he said.
As college tuition prices rose during the 1980s and 1990s, the
cost of higher education outpaced the average middle class income.
A year’s tuition plus room and board has increased to just
above $8,000 at four-year public institutions and to over $21,000
at private schools, according to the College Board. The median
family income is about $47,000, according to Census Bureau
figures.
As the purchasing power of aids such as the Pell Grant continue
to decline and borrowing increases, the affordability of college
may become more difficult for low-income students, according to a
1996 College Board study.
Recent figures report an 85 percent increase in total aid over
the last decade, reaching $64 billion in 1998-1999. But the
increase comes mostly in the form of student loans, making up to 58
percent of all aid, according to College Board figures.
National trends in financial aid show a tendency to favor middle
and upper-middle class students not necessarily qualifying for
need-based aid by giving them merit-based awards.
“That’s nothing new,” said Terry Hartle,
senior vice president of the American Council on Education.
“For as long as people have kept records, the higher your
income, the more likely you are to go to college.
“What is worrisome is the gap in college participation
between those from families with high income and those coming from
low-income families has not appreciably narrowed in the last 30
years,” he said.
Currently, financial aid that was generally reserved for
lower-income students is instead awarded to students with
high-five-figure and low-six-figure family incomes, according to a
1999 U.S. News report.
But the future of college-bound students may look more promising
as legislators recently approved more aid in the form of
grants.
Gov. Gray Davis recently signed a revamped Cal Grant Program
that will earmark at least $1.2 billion to students with a C
average or better, creating one of the nation’s largest
scholarship programs.
MONEY MATTERS Cost of attendance of four-year
and private institutions, as a share of family income from 1972 to
2000. SOURCE: Annual Survey of Colleges, The College Board Original
graphic by ADAM BROWN/Daily Bruin Web adaptation by CHRISTINE
TAN