<p>I have thought for a long while now that the basic model for FA is deeply flawed. The hype is that it is progressive, i.e., indexes tuition to income thus making college affordable for all. In fact, the FA model is terribly REgressive. Unlike income tax, which employs a rate that rises as income rises, FA charges a sliding scale tuition until an arbitrary income level (~180K) after which an absolute tuition amount is charged across the entire income spectrum, thus lumping the $200k families in with $200 million families. </p>
<p>If this is a “fair” model then why isn’t it our tax model?</p>
<p>The article is dancing around the heart of the issue. Families at low incomes and super rich incomes get tremendous bargains sending their kids to private college. It’s the affluent two-income professional couple families that get killed by it. Those are the kids who are least likely to attend when accepted at HYP, etc.</p>