(en) US, Ideas & Action* - Class War in Higher Education By Mike Kolhoff

Recent changes to financial aid regulations have reduced access to post-secondary 
education for the poorest Americans, seeming to indicate a hardening of the lines of 
social class. The most significant change in the 2012-2013 aid year has been the denial of 
any federal aid for those without a high school diploma. This changes a policy that 
allowed non-high school grads to take a test called the ?ability to benefit? test. If the
student was able to demonstrate ability to do college level coursework, they were eligible 
to apply for financial aid. The new regulation means that people who, for whatever reason, 
were unable to complete high school are now unable to apply for all types of federal 
financial aid. This change disproportionately affects students from low-income 
backgrounds, who often face economic necessities that force them out of high school and 
into the low-wage workforce. As of 2012-2013, they are no longer able to get assistance to 
even attend community colleges to better their lives.

The ?lifetime limits? for receiving Pell Grants also went into effect for the 2012-2013 
school year. This restricts the amount of grant assistance a student can receive to the 
equivalent of six years of full-time study. After the student meets these limits they are
limited to getting student loans. On the surface this seems reasonable (six years seems 
like a long time), but it fails to account for the situation that has faced several 
million workers over the last decades, where technology changes have dramatically changed
the way previously low-tech jobs are done. The Department of Labor has estimated that the
average American will have 3-5 career changes in their lifetime. Access to the Pell Grant, 
a program that specifically assists low-income students, has allowed millions to re-skill
for job changes forced on them by the tumult of the capitalist job market.

The income limit for Pell eligibility was also reduced for 2012-2013. The income amount 
for an automatic zero EFC (full Pell eligibility) was reduced from $30,000 to $23,000 for
a family of three with one in college, a 76% income reduction!

All of these changes are aimed specifically at low-income workers and their families, and
all were changes made by the Department of Education under the Obama administration. They
indicate an intentional, bi-partisan program to restrict social status change and harden 
class lines by limiting upward mobility through education, while at the same time doing 
nothing to address the issue of downward mobility that has accelerated since the 1980s. 
Social mobility in the United States will now have only one direction: down.

Two-year schools across the country are already showing a dramatic drop in enrollment, 
with the biggest drops being in the poorest areas: community colleges in Alabama, 
Arkansas, and Mississippi reported double-digit declines among their poorest students 
(http://diverseeducation.com/article/50618/# and 
http://www.nasfaa.org/Main/fa-news/State/Pell_Grant_Changes_Limit_Access_For_Some.aspx).

The class war is fully underway and is being reflected in access to higher education for 
the working class.

Mike Kolhoff

Financial Aid Worker
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* Anarchosyndicalist Workers Solidarity Alliance