Access Denied Report Released by ACSFA

In February 2001, the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (ACSFA) released a report entitled Access Denied: Restoring the Nation's Commitment to Equal Educational Opportunity. The report focuses on the current and impending access issues facing growing numbers of low-income students pursuing postsecondary education.

Goals and Obstacles
The report outlines goals that must be met to "bring about long-lasting improvement in educational and economic opportunity for low-income Americans." ACSFA was established by the Higher Education Amendments of 1986 as an independent source of advice and counsel to Congress and the Secretary of Education on student financial aid policy.

In Access Denied, ACSFA reports that previous obstacles to postsecondary education access for low-income students — poor academic preparation, lack of high-quality and timely financial aid information, and a cumbersome aid application process — are no longer the barriers they once were. Regarding academic preparation, the report states that even those students who must take modest numbers of remedial courses graduate at comparable rates to those students who require no remediation. Concerning the early availability of financial aid information, the report points out that such awareness information is helpful only if future aid adequately satisfies unmet financial need. In those cases, the report asserts, "Excessive levels of unmet need make early information about financial aid a double-edged sword." Finally, the report mentions that the Department of Education has significantly simplified the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, so the application process itself should not be a hindrance for students.

High Unmet Need
The Committee asserts that high unmet need is the only significant access barrier for low-income students. According to the report, by 2015, college enrollment of 18- to 24-year-old students will increase by 1.6 million and "a disproportionate number of these students will be low-income and a greater percentage of this generation will be well prepared for college."

Committee Suggestions
This translates into even more qualified students who will be unable to pay for college unless significant changes — such as those advocated by the Committee below — are made in order to "renew the nation's access strategy." The Committee suggests that:

• The nation's longstanding access goal must be reinstated and federal student aid policy refocused on dramatically reducing current levels of unmet need.
• Need-based grant aid must be increased for low-income students by reversing the current policy focus on middle-income affordability and merit.
• The Title IV programs — number, structure, effectiveness — must be reaffirmed as the nation's long-term solution to solving the access problem.
• Access partnerships between the federal government, states, and institutions must be rebuilt to leverage and target aid to low-income students.

Some of these proposals may generate a lively discussion of the federal government's role in higher education and where resources should be directed.

More Information
To access ACSFA's report, Access Denied, go to www.ed.gov/offices/AC/ACSFA/access_denied.pdf. For more information about ACSFA itself, visit www.ed.gov/offices/AC/ACSFA/.

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