A Financial Aid Overhaul - Libby A. Nelson, Inside Higher Ed

The latest white paper from a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded effort to rethink the nation’s financial aid system argues for a near-total overhaul -- shoring up the Pell Grant, reducing the amount many students and parents can borrow, and using federal aid to encourage colleges to better serve students from low-income backgrounds. The paper from the New America Foundation, “Rebalancing Resources and Incentives in Federal Student Aid,” is one of several policy briefs recently released in the Gates effort to reimagine financial aid in the months (or, more realistically, years) that remain before Congress overhauls the Higher Education Act. It's intended to rethink the financial aid system within the existing budget constraints. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/29/new-america-paper-financial-aid-calls-changes-loans-pell-grant-tax-credits