From Aid to Crisis:The Unfulfilled Equality Promise in the Evolution of Student Assistance Policy in American Higher Education
Higher Education Act of 1965 is a significant act in American higher education.The core part of the act is the student financial aid policy,aiming to remove the economic barriers for poor students to enter universities and colleges.The act has taken the mission of promoting the opportunity equality in higher education since its birth.During the process of implementation,it has indeed played an important role in enabling disadvantaged groups to accept higher education.However,with the changes of the times and the policy itself,after several reauthorizations and amendment,the student financial aid policy has been alienated,even moving to the opposite side of the equality original intention of financial aid and evolving into economic shackles of students and the debt crisis of the whole society.The act's original intention of equality did respond to the expectations of disadvantaged groups for higher education,but the equal lofty commitment gradually declined during the implementation process and the direction of the policy had shifted too.Many problems have arisen,such as the generalization of the funding students,the continuous inclination from grants to loan program,the rapid rise of college tuition,the difficulty of repaying student loan debt and so on.Though originally intended to promote equality,the act actually didn't break the cycle of poverty.Although the scale of funding continues to expand,higher education is still essentially unaffordable for disadvantaged groups,and the funding designed to promote equality has eventually moving into debt shackles,and the huge student loan debt has become a heavy burden for the federal government and the whole society.The student financial aid policy is based on the principle of equality,but the actual implementation effect is far from the legislative purpose,which is not only because of the conflict between the two pursuits of equality and excellence in higher education,but also effected by the influence of specific era background and special political system.In any case,how to realize the original equal intention in the practice of education law and policy is a general issue that needs careful consideration at present,offering a critical perspective to understand American education.
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