Merit-aid crowds out need-based aid

Just after writing my previous post last night, I opened my email to find this article about a new study released by Cornell University’s Higher Education Research Institute. It goes right along with part of the discussion about how colleges spend money on student subsidies. Turns out, the more a college spends on “merit-based” aid (which disproportionately benefits upper income students), the fewer low-income students a college is likely to enroll. There is a crowding-out effect between these types of aid, giving some evidence that neoliberal values are trumping egalitarian ones with regard to student enrollments. This is worrisome given the persistent educational inequalities we see in higher education: