A set formula would determine exactly how much Colorado students would receive in state financial aid under a proposal being considered by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
That option is one of several the commission will review as it determines how to fix a financial-aid system that isn’t helping many of the neediest students.
Only about one-third of Colorado students eligible for state financial aid receive it, according to a commission report released Thursday.
Last year, 44,278 of the 70,583 students eligible for state aid never got any. Almost 25,000 of the students who didn’t receive state financial aid were in the lowest income bracket and qualified for federal Pell Grants.
“That is what’s so shocking to me,” higher education commissioner Rick O’Donnell said. “Something is not working.”
The state could have doled out $1,300 to every college student in Colorado who was eligible last year, O’Donnell said. Instead, colleges across the state draw up aid packages for students and often give out more money to those who apply first.
“The neediest kids more often than not apply to school late,” O’Donnell said. “If they apply in July, they say, ‘All our money is gone.”‘
The state spent about $77 million on financial aid in 2005, down from $91 million in 2003. The commission is asking for an increase of $8.7 million next year.
Other major problems with the financial-aid system are that state aid doesn’t transfer if a student switches schools and that colleges often attract students with large grants their freshman year, then cut them the following year, the report says.
The proposed formula would set a scale based on family income so students would know exactly how much state aid they would receive.
Nancy McCallin, president of the state community college system, likes the idea of a state formula – if there is money to back it up.
“If the level was sufficient, then I think it would be great,” she said.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
