The Coming Crisis in Student Aid: Report of the 1978 Aspen Institute Conference on Student Aid Policy

Abstract

The Aspen Institute Program for Education in a Changing Society reviews and considers major issues of public policy concerniJig the movement of citizens into and through formal and informal educational programs. At the postsecondary level, one set of these issues is the provision of public support to those who would be unable to participate without student aid. Recognizing the opportunity provided by the need to pas's new legislation in 1979 or 1980, reauthorizing the Federal student aid programs, the Aspen Institutereceived the support of the Ford Foundation for an invitational conference to identify the policy questions that must be addressed. This report describes the outcomes of that conference. The Conference on Student Aid Policycoritinues the role of both the Institute and its education program to provide a neutral ground on which representatives of different interests and backgrounds can discuss problems of mutual concern. In the past, the education program has produced reports intended to serve as the basis for policy discussions and program developments by state and local governments, private institutions, the Congress and Federal agencies. The financing of students in postsecondary education is one area in which the development of a comprehensive and fully-articulated public policy is crucial to the achievement of many larger social goals. The Institute is pleased to be able to offer this contribution to the debate which must occur in the development of that policy.