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

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he increased

use

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of

merit

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aid

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is associated with a decrease in

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of low-income and minority students."

This

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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

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-based financial

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which was issued by a group of private

college

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presidents (Gardner). Making financial

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entirely dependent upon “

merit

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” makes

college

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

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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

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aid

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

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, basing financial

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for students on

merit

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serves to lock low-income people into poverty;

additionally

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, regardless of whether it is intended or not,

merit

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-based financing

also

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has racial and gender bias.

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, the very term

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

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Misnomer

in a term commonly used in higher education:

merit

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aid

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. The

use

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of '

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’ implies

excellence

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Excellence

or worthy of praise, but unfortunately, in

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context,

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

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

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-based financial

aid

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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

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-based scholarship or not. A low-income

student

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

also

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

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

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-based financial

aid

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?

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

in addition

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

aid

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for

student

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's

merit

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-based.

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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

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sexist. While the amount of money

that is

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dedicated to

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-based financial

aid

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increases, the amount of money available for

need-based

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financial

aid

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proportionately decreases.

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, while the amount of

merit

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-based financial

aid

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increases,

conversely

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, the number of students who receive

need-based

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aid

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- 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

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of

merit

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aid

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

study

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student

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

merit

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aid

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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

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rose but

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rose, but

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

such

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a program. The study

also

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found that the introduction of a

merit

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aid

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

qtd

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.

in

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In

Burd 5). Another problem with

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-based financial

aid

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

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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

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, 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

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?

Similarly

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, what of the LGBTQ students, particularly LGBTQ students of

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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

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stratified or

further

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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

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financial

aid

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(qtd.

in

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In

Elfman). Making

student

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aid

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aid, merit

merit

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

much

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many

more

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More

likely to receive

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-based financial

aid

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than students of

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color

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

colour

(Racial Breakdown of Financial

Aid

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

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aid

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aid, merit

merit

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-based only serves to

further

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entrap people of

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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

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

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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

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

need-based

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financial

aid

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. All financial

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aid there

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aid, there

is

merit

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-based (Total Grant

Aid

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Awarded). In conclusion, making government financial

aid

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for students based solely on

merit

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

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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

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aid

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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.

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Come

Com

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

college

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

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

Likewise

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,

merit

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-based financing has

also

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been shown to cause lower

college

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

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therefore not

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therefore, not

only must we no longer consider

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-based

student

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financial

aid

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

merit

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-based financial

student

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aid

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programs and force the states which are currently using

merit

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-based financial

aid

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to immediately discontinue that practice and return to the

use

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of

need-based

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financial

aid

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.