ABSTRACT
Federal and state governments, colleges and universities, and employers and other private sources distributed $134.8 billion in fi nancial aid to students during the 2005-06 academic year, 95 percent more in infl ation-adjusted dollars than a decade earlier. Without these grants, loans, tax benefi ts, and work subsidies, many of the nation’s 17 million undergraduate and graduate students would be unable to continue their educations in the institutions of their choice.
