Should the Government Continue to Provide so Much Financial Aid for College Students? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Education is widely considered a pillar for economic growth and development. In America, education, especially college level, has been considered crucial and the main driver of economic productivity. As a result, efforts have been put in place to ensure high enrolment. One of the efforts is the provision of financial aid to students in form of grants, federal loans, work-study, and tax benefits. However, there has been a heated debate on whether the government should continue providing much financial aid to college students when the public debt is almost getting out of hand. Although financial aid may be said to help increase college enrolment and increase labor productivity, the truth is that financial aid has benefited colleges than students through increased fee charges, benefited well-off families than needy students, and let to predatory lending in higher education; hence should be stopped.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Financial aid benefits colleges more than the students who needed the help, and increase fee burden for those students who do not get the grants. Lucca et al. studied large data set on students, financial aid, and college tuition levels to ascertain the impact of financial aid on increase in tuition fee (23). The authors analyzed three types of financial aid including Pell Grants, federalized subsidized student loans, and unsubsidized student loans. The study established that for every dollar of a grant (Pell Grants) received by a student, the college fee charged increased by 55 cents in tuition fee, and for every extra dollar in federal subsidized student loan, college tuition went up by 70 cents (24). For every dollar of an unsubsidized loan, the tuition fee increased by 30 cents (Lucca et al. 24). From these statistics, one can notice that financial aid to students is the primary reason for escalating college costs in the U.S. It is because of the simple fact that increases in financial aid increase demand for college education leading to an increase in fee (laws of demand and supply). This is a burden to students who raise college fee from their pockets as well as those who accumulate loan debts. Without financial aid, colleges would charge a lower fee, making college education affordable to many without the need for burdening taxpayers to raise student grants, and in this case, one can spend a reasonable amount of money for college that can be recovered easily upon employment.

Also, financial aid should be scrapped off because it does not benefit the needy students as it ought to; rather it benefits the students from well-off families. According to Marcus, a total of $5.3 billion is spent annually on financial aid for students who do not need it while another $4 billion meant for students from needy families ends up paying fees for students from families that incomes between $100,000 and 180,000. Evidently, the financial aid docket diverts taxpayer's or borrowed money to individuals who are not needy. The financial aid was established with the aim of helping the needy, but because it has failed to meet its purpose, it is reasonably fair that it be stopped to prevent further waste of public funds.

Moreover, the financial aid docket from the government has led to unscrupulous practices in higher education, one being predatory lending in higher education. As of 2012, the student loan debt had surpassed one trillion dollar mark (Fuller 59). The main drivers of the escalating student loan debt were "the rapid growth in for-profit education and questionable recruitment and lending practices in the sector" (Fuller 59). The Congress committee of Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions probed into the issue and established that "admissions officers at specific for-profit institutions had promised potential students employment, licensure, and other returns on investment in exchange for relatively high costs of attendance "(Fuller 59). Furthermore, the report found that "for-profit institutions gladly took federal student aid dollars and devoted a disproportionate share of their budgets to advertising and recruitment" (Fuller 59). These stunning revelations inform that financial aid is being abused. It is not surprising that it takes the course of the 2008-2009 housing market that eventually led the country to a recession. Having hit a trillion dollar mark, student financial aid has proved to be the main driver of the accumulating national debt which if not checked can lead to another recession.

On the other hand, those who argue in favor of the continued provision of financial aid for students make valid points although they do not withstand a reality test. Mostly, the proponents of financial aid make their claims along the popular notion that college education should be made affordable to raise future productivity and address inequality issues through enhanced access to higher education as much as possible for all. A common argument for financial aid is the fact that government financial aid for college students increases enrollment which in turn promote social and economic growth in the land as well as promoting equal educational opportunity. Whereas no one can dispute the fact that education promotes social and economic growth as well as creating equal opportunities for all persons, the unverified claim that financial aid leads to increased college enrollment is flawed. In 1900, 23 out of 1000 Americans aged between 18 and 24 enrolled for college (Vedder 23). In 1970, 324 individuals in the same age bracket enrolled for college (Vedder 23). While the increase can be slightly attributed to the GI Bill, the entire federal financial aid programs including grants and loans amounted to only $1.6 billion (Vedder 23). A fourteen-fold increase in college enrollment was realized despite the absence of federal financial involvement except for GI Bill that created financial aid after the World War II. Literacy levels in America were high as early as 1850 in spite of the fact that the majority of the schools were privately owned (Vedder 23). In Britain before and during the Industrial Revolution, a vast rise in literacy occurred without a reparation of governmental financial aid (Vedder 24). To that point, the notion that financial aid is somehow necessary to promote high college enrollment is simply untrue historically leaving no foundational basis to underpin its implementation going forward.

Also, proponents for financial aid cite increased productivity of human labor as the main end for higher involvement of government in funding of college and higher education. Logically, this argument is true. For example, when two graduates, one from high school and another one from college are presented with a task, the college graduate is expected to produce a quality work because of the advanced training and skills that he or she has acquired and which enable high productivity in a specific area of work. However, increased financial aid by the government to college students has shifted focus from quality education to quantity where education standards have been compromised. There is an emerging body of evidence showing that college graduates are less literate than previously (Vedder 23). Also, nearly one-half of the students entering college full-time fail to graduate within six years. Dropout rates are so high (Vedder 25). There is a high chance that the students who are the beneficiaries of financial aid drop out halfway and the value of that investment goes to a waste. Because of increased financial aid, even those students who are not qualified for college education enroll and after sometime drop out because they cannot meet the course requirements or even if they graduate, they graduate their literacy levels cannot meet those of a college graduate due to lower minimum entry points or poor foundation in the lower levels of education. Thus, financial aid is not contributing to higher labor productivity, instead, it causes deterioration.

Conclusion

The government should not provide so much financial aid for college for college students because it is evident that it is the main driver for escalating college fees, and it does not increase labor productivity or uplift the needy students as was intended. Financial aid, which was supposed to help needy students, flows to those who are financially able to pay their fees. For-profit colleges are manipulating financial aid to their financial gains and increased allocations to the kit cover exaggerated tuition fees. Overall, increasing financial aid for college students drives enrollment at the cost of quality and productive labor from the graduates. At the bottom line, it should be noted that increased financial aid for college students is a burden to the taxpayers, and if not checked it might get out of hand soon leading to a possible financial crisis as the national debt hits unacceptable levels.

Works Cited

Fuller, Matthew B. "A history of financial aid to students." Journal of Student Financial Aid 44.1 (2014): 4.

Lucca, David O., Taylor Nadauld, and Karen Shen. "Credit supply and the rise in college tuition: Evidence from the expansion in federal student aid programs." The Review of Financial Studies (2015).

Marcus, Jon. "Financial Aid Not Always Going To Neediest College Students - The Hechinger Report". The Hechinger Report, 2018, https://hechingerreport.org/financial-aid-not-always-going-to-neediest-college-students/. Accessed 3 Dec 2018.

Vedder, Richard. "The Real Costs of Federal Aid to Higher Education. Heritage Lectures. No. 984." Heritage Foundation (2007).