Student Financial Assistance

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Student Financial Assistance

George W. Bush said education is “the great lifting mechanism of an egalitarian society.” He means, education is the great equalizer amongst individuals in a society established on equality. Unfortunately, access to education is not always as equal, nor are we living in an egalitarian society. In 1965, congress passed legislation, namely the Higher Education Act of 1965, in order to diminish the distance between students and the reality of higher education. Despite their seemingly positive intentions, the office of Student Financial Assistance has evolved into a very unpopular entity of the executive branch. Applicants are continuously frustrated by the aid, or lack of aid, that they are awarded. I was once a critic of the system and believed that I was being cheated out of aid that was rightfully mine. In fact, this is the point of view that I intended to support, in this paper. However, once I began to gather secondary sources, I found that this point of view lacked sufficient support and was untrue. Thus, my opinion has been changed. My opinion has been changed not only by research, but also by changing my perspective of the entire situation from narrow to broad and from particular to all-inclusive.

The widely believed argument that the government distributes student-aid in a biased manner or, rather that the government’s policies for distributing the aid ultimately withhold aid from the middle class, simply, does not hold water. However, since I once made this argument and believed it strongly, I am willing to entertain it. The controversy about student aid, on the public level, begins when the Student Aid Report (SAR) is returned to the student and their family. This is whe...

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...tem, I have questioned the amount of aid I received, and I have pointed a finger at the lower class. Now, as a result of this assignment, I have examined the system and how it functions and compared it with what it was intended to accomplish. My conclusion is that it works. I examined the allocation of funds amongst the spectrum of incomes, and I believe it’s just. I have also, extensively examined the lower class, who I once pointed a finger at. My conclusion is, when this nation establishes equality in the areas of, employment, housing, primary education, health care, racial and ethnic issues, etc., that is when we can talk about the small gap between each class in the amount of federal aid awarded to those classes. When the playing field has been leveled in all other variable subjects that is when the amount of aid should be congruent between all classes.

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