80 F Street, N.W., Suite 413, Washington, D.C. 20202-7582 · Tel: 202/219-2099 · Fax: 202/219-3032
An independent committee created by Congress to advise on higher education and student aid policy
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON STUDENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
COMMITTEE MEMBERSDr. Juliet V. GarcíaChairperson andPresident, University of Texasat BrownsvilleDr. Charles TerrellVice Chairman and Vice President,Division of Community andMinority ProgramsAssociation of American MedicalCollegesMr. Don R. BoucPresident and CEONational Education Loan Network Ms. Judith Flink Director of Student FinancialServicesUniversity of Illinois at ChicagoMs. Norine FullerExecutive DirectorThe Fashion Institute of Design andMerchandisingDr. Henry Givens, Jr.PresidentHarris-Stowe State CollegeDr. Robert C. KhayatChancellorUniversity of MississippiMr. Lawrence W. O’ToolePresident and CEOAmerica’s Charter School FinanceCorporationMs. Sandra L. TarboxDoctoral StudentCenter for the Study of Higherand Postsecondary EducationUniversity of MichiganMr. Donald R. VickersPresidentVermont Student AssistanceCorporationDr. Thomas R. WolaninSenior AssociateThe Institute for Higher EducationPolicy
June 26, 2002The Honorable Edward M. KennedyChairmanCommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and PensionsUnited States Senate315 Senate Russell Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510Dear Senator Kennedy:I am pleased to provide you with the Advisory Committee’s most recent reportentitled,
Empty Promises, The Myth of College Access in America
. The reportfinds that record-high financial barriers keep hundreds of thousands of college-qualified high school students out of colleges this year alone andmillions of such students over the decade. The report suggests a set of federalpolicy priorities for addressing the problem.The Advisory Committee was created by Congress to advise the Secretary of Education and Congress on higher education and student aid policy, and tomake recommendations that improve access. Over the last four years, theCommittee has dedicated its research efforts to articulating the current state of access by developing a report on the condition of access. The report,
Access Denied, Restoring the Nation’s Commitment to Equal EducationalOpportunity,
released last spring, confronted policymakers with the primacy of the federal goal of equal access and the critical importance of need-basedstudent aid. The Committee expanded its research efforts this year to includemore recent analyses of the significant effects of high unmet need on thecollege-going behavior of college-qualified, low- and moderate-income highschool graduates by issuing this follow-on report.In the Committee’s research, we found that our nation invests in student aid inorder to ensure that the opportunity to attend college and attain a bachelor’sdegree does not depend on family income alone. Nevertheless, the financialbarriers to a college education have risen sharply due to shifts in policies andpriorities at the federal, state, and institutional levels, resulting in a shortage of student aid, and, in particular, need-based grant aid, as well as rising collegetuition. As a result, students from low- and moderate-income families whograduate from high school fully prepared to attend a four-year college confrontoverwhelming financial barriers which block their access to college.
Leave a Comment