Part 1 of 3 History of Federal Student Aid: by Lumina Foundation

Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest private foundation focused solely on increasing Americans’ success in higher education, provided a 3 part series detailing the history of federal financial aid in the United States.

Why is this important? It’s important to know where things came from before you can move forward.

Federal aid is at the mercy of who currently sits in office, who we vote into office specifically to Congress. While its tough to vote for candidates on single issues, it’s important to understand that decisions on federal student aid are impacted by who you vote into office. Currently, there has been much discussion on the value of providing federal funding to students for their college education and whether it has made higher education more complex than is necessary. Discussions have also swirled around suggesting that there should be reductions in or a discontinuation of the Pell Grant, the long standing federal grant program providing grant funding that students are not required to re-pay.

Take a look at part 1 of the 3 part series to learn the Genesis of federal financial aid and begin to understand how federal aid came to be, to help inform where it should go in the future of funding higher education.