Access to College: The Role of Family Income.

This newsletter issue focuses on the roles played by higher education finance and student financial aid in ensuring broad access to higher education. Specifically, the report discusses trends in family income and college costs that affect the need for student aid. The report finds that income remains a primary determinant of students' educational opportunities. Students from higher income families enroll in college at rates three to four times greater than students from lower income families. Government student aid programs have not successfully overcome financial barriers to college and significantly increased the college enrollment rates of students from lower income families. Colleges themselves, through institutionally funded grants, provide an important part of the access currently available to low-income students. College is becoming less and less affordable for lower income and middle income families. Because a high and increasing proportion of all American children are in lower income families, their access to college is likely to erode unless action is taken. Overcoming the financial barriers to college will require increasing amounts of student aid and guidelines that carefully target aid to the neediest students. Seventeen graphs present college-going rates by family income, percent of young adults enrolled in college, and trends in college costs. (JDD)