“Built by Adults for Adults:” Bureaucracy and Burden Relief in the Take-up of Need-Based Financial Aid

• In Event: 50204 - Navigating Bureaucracy, Policy, and Resource Allocation in Schools

Abstract

Higher education provides a critical pathway for upward mobility in the United States. However, access to higher education is highly stratified in the U.S. Federal and state college financial aid programs aim to reduce inequality and promote college access. However, like most social programs in the U.S., a large number of those eligible for need-based aid for college do not receive it. We examine this problem of policy take-up—defined as the fraction of eligible program recipients who actually receive aid—through the case of the Tuition Incentive Program (TIP) in the state of Michigan. TIP is a grant aid program that provides free community college to low-income students based on childhood participation in Medicaid. We leverage a large-scale mixed-method study—including comprehensive data on over 1 million Michigan public school students over eleven cohorts as well as interviews with high school counselors, program administrators, and financial aid specialists—to investigate take-up of this free-tuition program, and the mechanisms underlying program take-up. We find that take-up is a complex matrix, illustrating that both program administrative hurdles and the front-line administrators who connect individuals to aid can be understood not as standalone hurdles or actors, but rather as a part of an intricate network shaping access to resources. Information appears to be particularly important, as well as administrative barriers like the financial aid application. Further, we find that while counselors have no official role in administering this program, they play a key role helping students navigate access to the benefits they are entitled to. Through partnerships with the state, counselors can alleviate some of the burden on students, but only when they have the resources and institutional connections to do so. The resulting low take-up can undermine the effectiveness of TIP and similar programs that aim to make college affordable.

Authors

• Elizabeth Burland, University of Connecticut

• Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija

• Xavier Fields, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

• Kelcie Gerson

• Katherine Michelmore

• Nathan Sotherland

• Kevin Stange

• Marissa Thompson, Columbia University

• Megan Tompkins-Stange