For many, college is a debt-defying feat

Thomas Mortenson, a higher-education policy analyst at the Center for the Study of Opportunity and Higher Education in Washington, say it's high time a report identified specific states and institutions based on college accessibility to low-income students. "I think it's a great report with a message I've been trying with difficulty to get out for years," he says. "For families earning less than about $50,000 a year, a college student averages about $3,000 of unmet need - after they take out loans and grants. For many of them that $3,000 might as well be $3 million."

But there's a great deal of unhappiness over this report, too. It has ruffled feathers among individual colleges, especially private colleges, of which only about 1 in 10 was rated "affordable" to the average low-income student. Few such institutions consider themselves "unaffordable" or inaccessible, and they worry that low-income students might not apply.

David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, issued a written response, saying the report "misrepresents reality, misleads readers, and harms the very families the foundation is trying to help."

It has also rankled those promoting the idea that college is indeed affordable despite steady rises in tuitions. The American Council on Education (ACE) in Washington is one of the higher-education industry's chief lobbyists. It spent millions on its "College is Possible" campaign, which highlighted the nearly $80 billion in available student aid. Federal Pell Grants did rise to $4,000 last year, the highest level ever, but most student aid comes in the form of loans rather than grants.

"Any report that suggests the affordability of an institution can be reduced to a 'yes' or 'no' answer based purely on a statistical formula is simply ludicrous," says Terry Hartle, ACE's director of government affairs.

Mr. Hartle says the report is flawed at its core, mentioning several schools that require little or no tuition but were rated "unaffordable." Lumina defends its analysis despite such anomalies.

Other groups are not so quick to dismiss the report. A spokesman for the United States Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) says it dovetails with a PIRG report last year showing a decade-long surge in average student debt after graduation - from $9,000 to nearly $17,000.

"We do see that low-income students are more likely to borrow and end up more heavily in debt than higher-income students," says Tracey King, co-author of the PIRG report.

That may be one reason that, despite a surge in enrollment in the past decade, blacks and Hispanics did not continue on to college at the same high rate as whites, Mr. Mortenson says.

A big factor is that state aid to students is just not geared to low-income students, he says. In Georgia, for instance, the state's much-touted HOPE scholarships have benefited mainly middle-income students and their families - not low-income students, Mortenson says. The same trend of helping middle-income families with college finances while low-income families languish is repeated in a number of states, he says.

In the long run, this trend could have serious ramifications. A growing proportion of future college students will come from low-income groups, the report says. Unless shifts occur in funding and grants to aid low-income students, the likely result is a deeper split in society between undereducated, low-income individuals and those who are more educated and better paid, some predict.

"What this study really confirms is what students already know," says Corye Barbour, legislative director for the United States Student Association, with more than 1 million members. "College is just too expensive - and too difficult for low-income students to pay for."

Send e-mail comments to claytonm@csps.com. To download the report, go to www.luminafoundation.org.

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