I’m not talking about perceptions or how things are communicated. I’m talking about actual dollars and cents. Places like Brookings Institute are saying yeah, some families are going to take a huge bath.
People who authored the change are saying yeah, that’s not an accident. Certain families were getting a huge benefit, and we specifically tailored these changes to take this benefit away. It’s not an unfortunate downstream consequence. It was an intentional act.
It’s absolutely possible to believe that’s right and just. But to believe that, you have to recognize that it takes an unjust benefit away from some people. “Sorry, but you had it coming,” is a perfectly legitimate reaction.
But it seems difficult to argue, “Yep. You had this huge unjust level of aid. We are using these changes to rectify that injustice. But don’t worry it’s not really impacting you at all.”
Either the changes rectify an unjust level of aid, in which case it’s legitimate to accurately point out that impact.
Or the changes don’t impact people, in which case there was no injustice, or it was left unrectified.
My original post said yes. Some families will benefit from more or larger Pell grants. But other families will take a beating.
Brookings says yes. That’s right. Some families will take a beating.
So I guess we will see. I talked to a middle class family whose total EFC was 32k. Now it’s 64k.
Either they are going to get crushed. Or it won’t make a difference and their out of pocket will look really similar to last year.
We’ll know soon enough. Maybe. For now their daughter is struggling to know whether she should line up roommates and look for an apartment. Because she has absolutely no idea if she can afford to go. Aid for returning students always comes later, so there was always anxiety. But with their SAI doubling, there’s understandable anxiety. If it really isn’t going to impact anybody, she should just sign a lease.
If caution is in fact in order, it seems like an admission that yes, some people are going to get hammered. Which was what I said at the beginning.