Colorado’s poorest college students will get a state financial-aid stipend beyond the $2,400 every student already receives regardless of financial need, the state higher-education commission decided Thursday.
Still undetermined is the most contentious part of Colorado’s financial-aid overhaul – whether the yearly stipend is a flat $1,470 or if it will fluctuate depending on tuition at the school a student chooses.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education approved the new stipend plan despite objections from University of Colorado and Colorado State University officials, who said the flat-rate option would benefit community colleges and hinder universities with higher tuition.
“Poor kids who want to get a bachelor’s degree would be discouraged to going to the universities in this state,” said Alan Lamborn, CSU’s chief academic officer.
CU-Boulder projects it would lose $1.1 million – from $5.9 million to $4.8 million – in state financial aid with a flat stipend. And the Health Sciences Center’s financial aid would go from a projected $1.6 million in 2007 to $105,692 with a flat stipend, said Michel Dahlin, CU vice president for academic affairs.
The commission has studied financial-aid reform for six months, trying to fix a system that isn’t helping some of the neediest students.
With colleges determining aid amounts, only about one-third of Colorado students eligible for state financial aid receive it, according to a commission report. Last year, 44,278 of the 70,583 students eligible for state aid never got any.
The current system is more complicated than a stipend – the state doles out financial aid to colleges with a formula that accounts for tuition and the financial need of the student body. Colleges draw up aid packages for students and often give out more money to those who apply first.
The commission hopes to resolve the issue of stipend rates this summer.
The stipend will “demystify” financial aid for low-income families, it’s transferable and it ensures poor students don’t miss out on state aid by applying late, said Diane Lindner, the commission’s chief financial officer.
The commission meeting at the University of Denver also drew dozens of rural educators upset with college entrance requirements set to begin with the 2010 high school class, next fall’s freshmen.
Students will have to take four years of math and two years of foreign language to get into one of the state’s four-year public colleges. Rural districts, already struggling with declining enrollment and revenues, can’t attract qualified teachers for advanced math and foreign-language classes, said Paula Stephenson, director of the Colorado Rural Schools Caucus.
She asked commissioners to delay the requirements until schools are adequately funded or at least until the commission determines whether college entrance requirements for the 2008 graduating class affect the number of college students who require remedial classes.
The commission is considering delaying the 2010 requirements one or two years or allowing waivers for districts that cannot handle the extra classes, executive director Rick O’Donnell said.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
