Report Warns Financial Barriers Will Deny Millions Bachelor’s Degrees, Undercut Competitiveness

A new report from the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance warns that millions of college-qualified high-school students will be unable to obtain bachelor’s degrees during the current decade because of financial barriers to higher education. The report warns that the resulting loss of bachelor’s-degree attainment will undercut America’s competitiveness in the global economy.

The report, Mortgaging Our Future, conservatively estimates that between 1.4 million and 2.4 million college-qualified low-to-moderate-income high-school students will not attain bachelor’s degrees during the decade due to financial barriers, which result primarily from rising college prices and insufficient need-based grant aid.

The advisory committee recommends the following six financial-aid-policy initiatives to help lower financial barriers to higher education and enhance bachelor’s degree attainment:

• Reinvigorate the access and persistence partnership to increase need-based aid from all sources.
• Restrain increases in the price of college, and offset necessary increases with need-based aid.
• Moderate the trend — at all levels — toward merit-based aid and increasing reliance on loans.
• Reduce financial barriers to transfer from two-year to four-year colleges.
• Strengthen early intervention programs for low- and moderate-income middle-school students.
• Invest in effective and productive remediation in college.

The report notes that the current reauthorization of the Higher Education Act presents an ideal opportunity to make lasting improvements in student aid. The report indicates, however, that an overhaul or dismantling of federal Title-IV student-aid programs is unnecessary.

The advisory committee serves as an independent source of advice and counsel to the U.S. Congress and the U.S. secretary of education on student financial-aid policy.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the committee’s report.