Representative Erik Fresen, Chair
House Education Appropriations Subcommittee
Response from the March 4, 2015 Panel Discussion on Need Financial Aid
Thank you very much for introducing need-based student financial aid in Florida as a topic for
this Legislative Session, and for scheduling a panel discussion with many specialists in our
higher education community.
As ICUF celebrates its 50th year in the state of Florida, we recollect of the origins of some of
Florida’s financial assistance programs. One of these is the Florida Student Assistance Programs
(FSAG) which is now this state’s largest need based program. During the late 1960’s, ICUF
represented 40% of the undergraduate enrollment in the state. However, the state universities
and public community colleges were growing both in institutional numbers and student
enrollments.
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In 1972, the ICUF Presidents worked with Governor Askew to create the FSAG program
to assist the diverse need-based population that was and continues to be well served at
the ICUF institutions. Soon after, the program grew and was divided into public and
private sector allocations for need-based students in Florida’s higher education system.
By 1979, the Legislature, recognizing the value of choice and access to a higher
education, created the Florida Resident Access Grant (FRAG) stating that independent
education was an “integral part of the higher education system in this state”.
We are proud to be a part of Florida’s financial aid history, and of the FSAG program
which last year served almost 120,000 students. Without these resources of tuition
assistance and financial aid, many colleges would not be able to enroll a diverse student
population.
Need-based State Student Financial Aid
A starting premise of financial aid is that paying for a student’s education is primarily the
responsibility of the student and family. College officials and state policies differ in their
philosophies and policies about whether all students should have “skin in the game” when
paying for their educations, and how much is appropriate to ask of them. Financial aid by
definition is funding that is intended to help students pay education-related expenses
including tuition, fees, room and board, books, and supplies for education at a college,
university, or private school. General governmental funding in the form of subsidies for public
education is not called financial aid. Financial aid refers to awards to specific individual
students.
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The federal government provides need-based and merit-based student aid; grants,
work-study, and loans. The state of Florida also provides a variety of need-based and
non-need-based aid, consisting of grants, work-study programs, tuition waivers, and
scholarships. Individual colleges and universities may provide grants and need- based
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and merit-based scholarships. Some institutions may only require the FAFSA. Others
may also require a need-based analysis document, such as the CSS/Profile, to apply a
more stringent need analysis for the rationalization of institutional funded aid. This is
an important mention because if the federal programs reduce the amount of
information on the FAFSA to “simplify” it, the states and or institutions within states,
will increase their questionnaires in order to have enough information to rank
students’ need to then distribute the need aid appropriately.
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Students requiring financial aid beyond what is offered by their institutions may
consider a private (alternative) education loan, available from many lending institutions,
or federal government which usually has lower interest rates than private loans.
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Colleges work to strike a balance between providing for current students, and
conserving resources for future ones. They balance the available financial aid to
students so that each student has enough funds to successfully enroll and pay their
tuition and fees. Living expenses may need to be covered by student self-help, family
funds, savings, work-study or loans. Many colleges expect students to contribute
something from what they earn during the summer, or even through-out the year.
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Colleges have a number of tools for striking a balance between supporting their
students and conserving their resources. Financial-aid administrators work best when
they have choices and discretion in awarding the resources available to their students.
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The state of Florida is in a unique position with a growing population and the desire to
encourage access to higher education and to boost assistance to those with need.
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As non-traditional student enrollments increase, attention to their lack of qualification
for many traditional student aid programs is warranted.
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Below is a comparison of SUS and ICUF, the four-year, degree seeking, SACS accredited
Florida institutions, with student populations who qualify for need by family incomes
less than $60,000, and Pell eligibility. Many of the students at the ICUF institutions are
also first-time-in-college who receive significant institutional aid.
Family Income Under $60k
% Receiving Pell Grant
52%
42%
46%
55%
50%
45%
40%
41%
42%
41%
40%
ICUF
SUS
ICUF
SUS
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Specific suggestions for program amendments to further the flexible and
equitable use of state financial aid for postsecondary students
The panel discussion outlined many of the current federal, state and institutional aid programs.
All the tools mentioned by our ICUF associate, Theresa Antworth, and other members of the
panel are critical to student access.
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The flexibility for the financial aid administrators to combine resources in multiple
ways and values to create individual student financial aid packages is paramount for
access and affordability to help the majority of students enroll in higher education.
Per the assignment, the following ideas are potential modifications to the current state
programs and practices which might offer students a more equitable distribution of the
available financial assistance.
Equitability in the playing field of access to programs and the criteria within programs
would benefit students regardless of their choice of public or private institutions.
Florida Student Assistance Grant (FSAG)
Current FSAG appropriations, Line Item 75 in the 2014-15 GAA, fund four categories of
postsecondary institutions:
o
o
o
o
Public (SUS and FCS combined),
Private (4 year, non-profit, SACS, chartered in-state),
Postsecondary (other degree seeking independent institutions), and
Career Education (public vocational and technical centers).
Recommendations #1
The total appropriation for the four categories (Public, Private, Postsecondary and Career
Education) could be equitably distributed between the categories based on their prorated
share of funded need-based students multiplied by the overall average award amount.
FSAG Equitable Distribution of Appropriation to Four Categories
2014-15 Estimating Conference Projected Students to be Awarded
Current Year
Students
Disbursements
Appropriation
$
Average Award 1,129
131,386
$
148,346,977 $
148,479,492
Incr/Decr
Public
98,894
$
111,651,326
$
114,525,243
-2.6%
Private
16,341
$
18,448,989
$
18,439,527
0.1%
Postsecondary
11,928
$
13,466,712
$
12,881,651
4.3%
Career Education
4,223
$
4,767,767
$
2,500,556
47.6%
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The Unfunded Need-based Students, referred to in the data collection system (SSFAD) as
Otherwise Eligible (OE), are not utilized in the student counts for appropriations because they
are not required by statute or rule, and therefore not all schools submit those counts. Those
reported OE students are audited by the Florida Department of Education to verify that the
student had an FSAG qualifying EFC, but does not verify if they had the minimum remaining
need required to be eligible for FSAG. Therefore, at this time, utilizing those counts would not
be equitable.
Such re-distribution of the total appropriation to all four categories by an overall average award
would dramatically increase the Career Education category share by an equivalent reduction
in the Public (SUS and FSC) category. Florida being a service and tourism state, with a
significant percentage of their population not completing an education beyond a high school
degree, may find this a great return on a financial aid investment.
Recommendation #2
Amend the allocation formula within each categories grant appropriation to participating
institutions. Base it on institutions annual pro-rated share of all prior year eligible students,
funded and in this case include the unfunded (Otherwise Eligible)
This amended allocation formula would more equitably distribute available funds to needbased students at institutions where they are enrolled.
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The advantage of including the OE students in this prorated share of remaining funds is
that it does not penalize an institution for it delivering different award amounts to
students with need, or from withholding an FSAG from a qualifying FSAG student based
on the fact that an individual student may already have a higher percentage of overall
financial aid funding than other need students.
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Currently some schools have more than their pro-rated share, so a gradual approach
over several years to balance institutions’ allocations may be needed to avoid an
unintended punitive affect in any given year for an institution or it’s students. This
could be done by allocating 90% of prior year disbursed funds which is current practice,
but then no additional dollars would be added to that 90% until other institutions
prorated share are aligned.
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The following Proviso language is recommended:
An institution’s allocation shall equal 90% of their prior year program award
expenditures. It may exceed that percentage amount after the balance of the annual
category appropriation is allocated to other institutions within the same category to
increase their allocation up to a match of their percentage share of the prior year needbased students, disbursed and otherwise eligible, as compared to the total need-based
students within their category.
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The decentralized process for administering an institution’s FSAG allocation provides an
individual approach to build a student’s financial aid package. Such flexibility is critical to the
overall assistance to need based students.
Florida Work Experience Program (FWEP)
This program is currently available to state universities, Florida State Colleges, non-public
institutions eligible to participate in FSAG, public career centers, and Education Preparatory
Institutes. In the most recent year of complete data, 2013-14, just over a third of the eligible
schools (56 out of 144 schools) participated.
Recommendation #3
Increase the funding for this program.
If the funding were significantly increased, a) more need-based students would be able to earn
income through work instead of taking out additional loans b) students who work on campus
tend to be less time stressed since their work is right on campus c) students tend to feel more a
part of the institution and therefore progress to higher levels of success, and d) more eligible
institutions may be encouraged to participate, negating an increased allocation per institution.
Institutional eligibility criteria may need to be reviewed to determine which institutions can
best serve need-based students with this program.
For many years, many institutions did not participate in this program; the reasons were mainly
two-fold as listed below. Recent legislative amendment to the statute now allows institutions
to use all their allocated funding for student jobs on campus.
1) First, the administrative burden of assisting students to find a job off-campus; the
assignment, the tracking of hours, the reimbursement of salary to the private company,
dissuaded many institutions from participating.
2) Second, the amount of the appropriation to be shared between the eligible institutions
was minimal and therefore creating a dis-incentive when compared to the
administrative workload.
Recommendation #4
The formula to allocate the appropriation to the institutions could be amended to allow for
an equitable distribution of annual funds. It could be based on their prorated share of needbased population, unless their request was for a lesser amount for the year.
Currently, schools receive a base allocation of the lesser amount of their prior year
expenditures or the amount of a new request. Eligible institutions wishing to join the program
in a given year, are awarded funds from the balance remaining after returning institutions are
awarded their base amount.
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Other State Financial Aid Need Programs
The variety of other need based, special purpose programs funded by the Legislature annually
could be reviewed at the Student Financial Aid Estimating Conference, and/or included in the
Annual Report to the Commissioner with an outline of a review of their funding formulas
Such would include:
 Jose Marti Scholarship Challenge Grant Program requires a matching award from
private sources and has a very limited number of awards per year. These awards go to
the neediest students with the highest academic standing. It is an example of a blended
need/merit award. It is a portable award that goes with the student to an eligible public
or private Florida institution. There the financial aid office uses those funds in
conjunction with other eligible aid to create a compatible financial aid package for the
student.
 The Mary McLeod Bethune Scholarship Program is restricted to the historically black
colleges and universities in Florida. The institutions are required to make a match
donation. The formula then allocates to each of the participating institutions (four are
eligible to donate) their prorated share of the appropriation according to their donation
as a percent of the total donations.
 First Generation Matching Grants - These funds are restricted to public state
universities and state colleges, and require an institutional matching award.
 The Rosewood Family Scholarship is not based on need, but restricted to use at a public
postsecondary institutions with the award restricted to tuition and fees.
Other State Non-Need-based Programs
The Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program is available to students who have qualified
during their senior year in high school and then maintain the earned hours and grade point
average for renewal each year. This program is based on merit and is available to eligible
students regardless of need or if their cost of attendance has been met by aid. Although a
merit-based program, approximately 50% of these students have demonstrated some need.
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Of concern for need-based students is the recent change to the eligibility criteria which
has significantly reduced the number of eligible Florida Medallion Scholars. Many of
these award level merit scholars had need. They now do not have the Bright Futures
award which has increased their unmet need amount. The ICUF institutions serve a
large portion of these students and like other institutions in this situation, are searching
for other resources to assist these particular need-based students.
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The Florida National Merit Scholar Incentive Program is a new merit-based program which
began in the 2014-15 academic year. It awards National Merit Scholars, at participating Florida
institutions, an award to cover their full cost of attendance at a public institution, or an
equivalent public award amount at a private institution.
Scholarships for Children and Spouses of Deceased or Disabled Veterans assist a specific
eligible student with an award equal to tuition and fees at a public institution. Students may
attend public and private institutions in the state.
Minority Teacher Education Scholars Program assists junior and senior minority students
enrolled in a state-approved teacher education program. Recipients are required to return this
aid if they do not work in field upon graduation.
The William L. Boyd, IV, Florida Resident Access Grant (FRAG) is a tuition assistance grant. It is
available to any Florida resident enrolled in an eligible independent institution full time. This
tuition assistance program began as a tuition equalization program to assist those students who
choose to attend a private institution and therefore did not benefit from the public subsidy
which reduces the public cost of tuition and fees.
This program is a lifeline to most students at their chosen private institution as it allows a
diverse population of Florida students to access and afford their postsecondary education at an
independent institution.
The Access to Better Learning and Education Grant is also a tuition assistance grant with
eligibility limited to specific private institutions in the state.
Cc:
Representative Marlene O’Toole
Representative Larry Lee
Representative Janet Adkins
Representative Larry Ahern
Representative Fred Costello
Representative Manny Diaz, Jr.
Representative Heather Fitzenhagen
Representative Mia Jones
Representative Elizabeth Porter
Representative Irving Slosberg
Representative Charlie Stone
Representative Dwayne Taylor
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