ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a set of institutional and public policy considerations that sit at the center of ongoing efforts to expand postsecondary access for low- and moderate-income students. An array of public policy questions are raised about the failure of our non-profit four-year sector of higher education to enroll more low- and moderate-income students. The barriers to increasing access to more selective private and public universities include an increasing number of low- and moderate-income students graduating from high school which will tax the financial aid budgets of many colleges; the test-optional/blind admissions process that makes the college admissions process less transparent to potential first-generation college students and their parents; and a college pricing system that also lacks transparency because of tuition discounting practices. The chapter ends with a set of recommendations for addressing these constraints on postsecondary access. These include a call for the federal government to use its financial aid programs as incentives to encourage universities to direct more of their energies and financial aid dollars to attract and enroll more low- and moderate-income students. A recommendation to create a code of ethics for enrollment managers is also included. Furthermore, Hossler calls on the federal government and/or state governments to consider thoughtful approaches to ending the merit arms race in order to invest more financial aid to low- and moderate-income families and to make college costs more transparent.
