Education

How the promise of free college doesn’t always help low-income students

From The Hechinger Report: “Many cover only the tuition that is still outstanding after federal aid is used up. These are called ‘last-dollar’ free college programs. Since federal aid to the lowest-income students — usually in the form of Pell Grants — almost always covers the full cost of community college tuition, low-income students don’t benefit, while higher-income students do. … What low-income students really need is help with other expenses, such as housing, books and transportation — things free college programs don’t often cover. Those essentials account for about 80 percent of the cost of attending community college, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.”

View the full article from The Hechinger Report.