Pell Grants, Essay Example

In today’s world, many people desire to have their children attend college and many adults seek to finish the college educations they never finished. However, some may find that paying for college is more difficult than they had imagined, particularly if their children or they, themselves, have not earned scholarships. Additionally, borrowing money for school as opposed to receiving grants may prove to be more than a family can handle, in the long term. However, the question remains regarding how this affects students from lower and middle class families in comparison to students from upper class families and how disparities will affect families’ decisions about college educations.

A CNN article reports on the rising costs of college tuition pricing out lower and middle class families, as incomes in America are unable to keep up with tuition spikes. It seems that the cost of a college education is hindering some people in the low and middle classes from attending college and causing them to feel held back. In addition, the disparity is growing between incomes and higher education costs for lower and middle class Americans, and this is in addition to cut backs for public subsidization, such as the Pell grant(Censky).

According toDouglass and Thomson, these disparities are reflected in student enrollment in both private and public universities. In addition, the trend is for universities to adopt a moderate to high fee and high financial aid model, as state governments are decreasing more finanical subsidization and shifting aid toward federal loans instead of grants, such as the Pell grant(Douglass and Thomson). This is something that could potentially adversely affect prospective students from low and middle income families, as opposed to students from high income, upper class families.

With tuition fees going up and Pell grants not going up, the disparities can only increase between the low/middle class and the upper class, particularly in regard to enrollment in the best schools. According to Douglass and Thomson, a 2004 study analyzing various prestigious private and public universities “concluded that the number and percentage of low-income and middle-incomefamilies had declined while the number from wealthy families increased” (2). This is likely due to the ability of the wealthier students to pay for the high tuition.

One trend seen recently as a solution to the high cost of a four-year college tuition bill is students opting for the two-year degrees instead, according to the Department of Education. However, this has resulted in less skilled workers in the workforce and causing a shift in America’s competitive advantage in the global economy. In addition, the old adage of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is not helping the situation(Censky).

There is definitely an education gap between richer and poorer families and it seems that education being the great equalizer is becoming more difficult to attain. This is because the gap between rich students and poor students is widening, according to research studies(Tavernise). In addition, studies indicate that students from affluent families have a better chance of doing better in school for various reasons, than do their poorer counterparts(Tavernise), and this issue may only grow worse with the skyrocketing tuition cost trend.

Works Cited

Censky, A. Surging college costs price out middle class. 13 June 2011. Web. 22 November 2014. <http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/13/news/economy/college_tuition_middle_class/>.

Douglass, J. A. and G. Thomson. The Poor and the Rich: A Look at Economic Stratification and Academic Performance Among Undergraduate Students in the United States. Research & Occasional Paper Series: CSHE.15.08. Unversity of California, Berkeley. Berkeley: Center for Studies in Higher Education, 2008. Print.

Tavernise, S. Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say. 9 February 2012. 22 November 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.