Student Aid Remains a State Priority
July 26, 2010
Even as the economy began to collapse in 2008, most states found a way to protect from cuts the grant aid they give state residents to attend college, a new study finds.
The annual survey, by the National Association of State Student Grant and Aid Programs (or NASSGAP), reveals that in the 2008-9 fiscal year, state spending on need-based and non-need-based grant aid for undergraduates rose by 5.6 percent over 2007-8. (Over all, state spending on financial aid rose by 2.7 percent over 2007-8.) That's less than in the several preceding years, and the smallest increase since 2002-3. But it both exceeded the expectations of, and pleasantly surprised, officials at the state aid association, who had feared that the recent upturn in state spending on financial aid would reverse itself given the general economic woes.
“States know that even with the economic difficulties they face, they need to continue to invest in the education of the work force,” said Lois Hollis, special assistant to the deputy commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and president of the association of state aid programs.
Hollis attached one significant caveat to her assessment, noting that 2008-9 represented the first time in at least a decade that there was essentially increase in state-based financial aid from in current (inflation-adjusted) dollars. With the inflation rate running at 5.6 percent during much of the July 2008 to June 2009 period covered by the NASSGAP survey, the aid that states meted out just kept pace with students’ rising costs.
