ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260112
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-2 EDITION: METRO
BOOSTING the state's Tuition Assistance Grants, proposed in Gov. George Allen's 1996-98 budget, has logic behind it. Not so with the absence in Allen's budget proposal of so much as an additional penny for need-based financial aid at the state's public institutions.
The TAG program, which provides annual grants to Virginians attending private colleges and universities in the state, has long enjoyed broad support as a relatively cheap if imperfect way for Virginia to (1) maintain a greater measure of diversity in the educational opportunities available to its residents, and (2) accommodate some of the tens of thousands in additional enrollment expected over the next decade. We applaud the increased funding for TAGs.
But the importance of TAGs in broadening Virginians' educational opportunities pales beside that of need-based financial aid at public institutions. TAGs are not means-tested, which limits the program's cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the number of need-based recipients at Virginia's public institutions each year is nearly triple the 13,000 TAG recipients.
Because the Allen budget restricts public colleges and universities to inflation-rate tuition increases, Sgro suggests, the financial-aid program can get by with no more funding. But even assuming all else is equal, this doesn't compute: It argues at the very least that the financial-aid appropriation should rise by the rate of inflation.
And all else isn't equal. Leave aside the question of the tuition cap's impact on academic quality. In the late '80s and early '90s, Virginia's public colleges sent tuition skyward in the face of steeply declining state support. Increases in financial-aid funding only partly offset the tuition jumps: The financial-aid need met by the state has fallen from 50 percent to 35 percent.
Well, Sgro has said, "It's just not possible to meet the needs of every group that wishes additional funding" - as if ensuring broad access to higher education were just another special-interest subsidy.
It isn't. A well-educated work force is vital for the economic future of the entire commonwealth, and a well-educated citizenry is vital for Virginia's social and political well-being.
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