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$27 million in unused student grants goes back to state

By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 commentator

Dallas, TX – Eighteen years ago, when your children were born, most likely your top ten list of worries included how you'd pay for their college education. There was no Texas Tomorrow Fund or any 529 college plan. You saved and then prayed that they might qualify for a scholarship. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Sorry to tell you that this year Texas universities had to give back to the state grant money that went unused. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Middays.

That's right, as reported in today's Dallas Morning News by Linda K. Wertheimer, $27 million worth of unused grant money had to be returned to the state. I find this mind-boggling. That would have meant aid to an additional 11,000 students. In 1999, the state legislature created the "Toward Excellence, Access and Success" program. This grant supports students by covering full tuition and fees for public universities. It also assists those attending private schools. The first two years of the program were a huge success. In fact, universities didn't have enough money to give to qualified students. So they upped the ante, from $100 million last year to $120 million dollars and for the 2001-2002 school year.

So why did they have to return over a quarter-million dollars? Not enough qualified students and not enough publicity for the grant program. To academically qualify, high school students have a list of required courses. That shouldn't be too hard, except the list includes chemistry and physics.

What's really hard to understand is last year, the legislature even raised the restricted family yearly household income qualification from $25,000 to $40,000.

More publicity and lowering the academic requirements are what financial aid officers are asking for. These officers are going to be answering more questions when they go before the Senate Finance Committee explaining this situation.

Oh, and that unused money will be returned to the program. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board told me they expect to use about a half of it for summer school. I trust that in the fall not a penny will be returned. For KERA Marketplace Middays, I'm Maxine Shapiro.

Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 P.M.