"As the presidential election campaign picks up, almost every top candidate has released a plan for higher education that addresses college affordability and student debt issues. But there’s only one candidate who’s already in the White House – Donald Trump – and this week he released his plan in the form of a proposed education budget for fiscal year 2021," according to The Hechinger Report. 

"If Congress were to approve it, some higher education experts say, low-income students would be so financially squeezed that college might be out of reach.

...

'The cuts that were proposed to the student aid programs would disproportionately impact low-income students,' said Megan Coval, vice president for policy and federal relations at the nonpartisan National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. 'Those programs, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, which we call SEOG, and Federal Work-Study and subsidized loans, are utilized primarily by our lowest income students.'

In the 2016-2017 school year, about 1.5 million students received FSEOG aid, and the average award amount was $665, according to a 2019 report from the Student Financial Aid Administrators’ association. About 617,000 students had Federal Work-Study jobs, which came with an average award of $1,759.

As Coval noted, this money is for students who are working with a small budget, or no budget at all, to finance their education. In the 2016-2017 school year, just under 68 percent of financially dependent students who received FSEOG came from households making less than $30,000 a year. Among dependent work-study students in undergraduate education, 44 percent were from households making less than $42,000 a year."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 2/14/2020