financial aid

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Tobacco Tax for UC/CSU Student Aid Initiative Filed

Byuclafaculty

Note: We posted this story yesterday although blogger now shows it as today for reasons unknown. An initiative has been filed that would raise tobacco taxes to fund student aid at UC and CSU.  The usual caveats apply.  It takes $1-$2 million to pay signature gathering firms to get such a petition on the ballot (as opposed to $200 to file it).  A tobacco tax initiative brings out big money opposition from tobacco companies.  Recall the tobacco tax that failed last June.  So a sponsor – if serious – would have to have deep pockets to carry out an effective…

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Student Aid Alliance

Byuclafaculty

From Inside Higher Ed today (excerpt below) comes a note about the Student Aid Alliance, a higher education group of which both UC and CSU are members. Alliance Pushes to Save Pell From ‘Super Committee’ October 25, 2011 The Student Aid Alliance, a group of 74 higher education associations, advocacy groups and other organizations, announced a lobbying campaign Monday to fight possible cuts to federal financial aid as the Congressional committee on deficit reduction enters the final month before its Nov. 24 deadline… There are various links in the article including a petition that you may find of interest. Full…

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Do Student “Fees” Support Financial Aid? Depends on How You Divide the Pie Says LAO

Byuclafaculty

The Legislative Analyst’s Office put out a “policy brief” on that question Aug. 6. You can find it at http://www.lao.ca.gov/sections/higher_ed/FAQs/Higher_Education_Issue_19.pdf Essentially, LAO says that since student costs are partly paid by the state’s general fund and partly from student fees, when you divert some of the total (state support + student fees) into aid, it is impossible to say from which part the aid comes. In short, LAO seems to say that you can divide the pie any way you like to get any answer you like. However, there is a potential problem with that approach. UC in particular has…