Government financial aid based on merit turns education from a right available to all students into a privilege primarily for the wealthy.

"[T

]

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]

he increased

use

of

merit

aid

is associated with a decrease in

enrollment

of low-income and minority students."

This

quote from a study done by Amanda L. Griffith, a professor of economics at Wake Forest University, was cited in a statement calling for an end to

merit

-based financial

aid

which was issued by a group of private

college

presidents (Gardner). Making financial

aid

entirely dependent upon “

merit

” makes

college

education even more class and race entitled (and biased) than it is already. As Catherine Rampell wrote, “

Merit

metrics like SAT scores tend to closely correlate with family income; about 1 in 5 students from households with income over $250,000 receives

merit

aid

from his or her school. For families making less than $30,000, it’s 1 in 10” (Rampell).

Consequently

, basing financial

aid

for students on

merit

serves to lock low-income people into poverty;

additionally

, regardless of whether it is intended or not,

merit

-based financing

also

has racial and gender bias.

Also

, the very term

merit

-based is misleading. As Chelsea Jones put it, “There is a

misnomer

Suggestion

Misnomer

in a term commonly used in higher education:

merit

aid

. The

use

of '

merit

’ implies

excellence

Suggestion

Excellence

or worthy of praise, but unfortunately, in

this

context,

merit

is often synonymous with privilege.” The fact of the matter is, low-income students who cannot obtain

merit

-based scholarships are just as smart as their higher-income counterparts who can get the

merit

-based financial

aid

but they happen to be unable to take part in the various extracurricular activities that play a big role in determining whether they are a star candidate for a

merit

-based scholarship or not. A low-income

student

not only might not have the ability to attend extracurricular activities depending on where her or his school is located, and they might

also

have to work part-time just to make ends meet even if their school had those opportunities (Jones).

Also

, are students with disabilities that make it difficult or impossible to participate in extracurricular activities, going to be less able to secure

merit

-based financial

aid

?

Lastly

, single mothers who have one child or more to take care of,

in addition

to going class and possibly working on top of that, would be unfairly impacted by a decision to make government financial

aid

for

student

's

merit

-based.

This

would, and already does, make it gender-biased. That, in combination with the fact that women who are equally qualified still tend to get paid less than men for the same jobs, makes

this

sexist. While the amount of money

that is

dedicated to

merit

-based financial

aid

increases, the amount of money available for

need-based

financial

aid

proportionately decreases.

Likewise

, while the amount of

merit

-based financial

aid

increases,

conversely

, the number of students who receive

need-based

aid

- IE Pell Grant- decreases. The result is fewer black students on the campus: Griffith, an assistant professor of economics at Wake Forest University, found that “the

use

of

merit

aid

is associated with changes in the socioeconomic and racial composition of the

study

Suggestion

student

body.” According to the report, within three to five years of introducing a

merit

aid

program, the two top tiers of private colleges saw their share of Pell Grant recipients fall by 6 percentage points. At bottom-tier schools, the proportion of Pell Grant recipients

initially

rose but

Accept comma addition

rose, but

ultimately dropped by 2 percentage points within 10 years of the creation of

such

a program. The study

also

found that the introduction of a

merit

aid

program led to a reduction in the representation of black students at top-tier schools (

qtd

.

in

Suggestion

In

Burd 5). Another problem with

merit

-based financial

aid

is that colleges and universities are dedicating a lot of resources to attracting “desirable” students who are high scoring and have high achievements.

This

is all to enhance the university’s prestige. But what of everyone else? What of those who have disabilities or those who must help take care of siblings or other relatives with disabilities?

Likewise

, what of the students who have to work part-time or even full time to get by and are not able to spend as much time on their classwork as they would like, or as their classwork really requires, having lower grades

as a result

?

Similarly

, what of the LGBTQ students, particularly LGBTQ students of

color

a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

colour

? David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, (a civil rights organization focused on the empowerment of LGBTQ people) and former executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, summarized it by saying: The ability for postsecondary institutions to provide credentials, certificates and degrees that are required for certain types of jobs are

further

stratified or

further

marginalizing individuals who are from communities that are most under supported or least likely to have access to the high-quality schools…without

need-based

financial

aid

(qtd.

in

Suggestion

In

Elfman). Making

student

aid

Accept comma addition

aid, merit

merit

-based only for them effectively shuts them out. Statistically speaking, there is plenty of evidence showing that white students are

much

Suggestion

many

more

Suggestion

More

likely to receive

merit

-based financial

aid

than students of

color

a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

colour

(Racial Breakdown of Financial

Aid

). At the same time, black and Chicana people earn less than white people do (Kochhar and Cilluffo). Taken together, making financial

aid

Accept comma addition

aid, merit

merit

-based only serves to

further

entrap people of

color

a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

colour

in a vicious cycle of poverty and inequality. It is white supremacist regardless of whether

that is

the intent of those who try to implement it. In a country that disproportionately incarcerates people of

color

a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

colour

, people who get out of prison and want to try to restart their lives by getting a

college

degree will find it much more difficult to do so in Georgia which has absolutely no

need-based

financial

aid

. All financial

aid there

Accept comma addition

aid, there

is

merit

-based (Total Grant

Aid

Awarded). In conclusion, making government financial

aid

for students based solely on

merit

has already been shown to be an unmitigated disaster for the low-income, disabled, working mothers and people of

color

a visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect

colour

. It amounts to educational apartheid and as already stated, it means that government

student

aid

pretty much becomes available only to those who least need it. To paraphrase Catherine Rampell, who is, in turn quoting, Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher at Edvisors.

com

Suggestion

Come

Com

, for low-income students, the six-year graduation rate is 45 percent when grants cover one-quarter of the

college

costs, but it goes up to 68 percent when grants cover three-fourths of the

college

cost; looking at the statistics for high-income students though, the graduation rates are about 78 percent either way.

Likewise

,

merit

-based financing has

also

been shown to cause lower

college

attendance for non-white students. Education needs to be viewed as an irrevocable right and not a privilege,

therefore not

Accept comma addition

therefore, not

only must we no longer consider

merit

-based

student

financial

aid

programs. We must go beyond that and enact federal laws that prohibit states from using

merit

-based financial

student

aid

programs and force the states which are currently using

merit

-based financial

aid

to immediately discontinue that practice and return to the

use

of

need-based

financial

aid

.