<p>I agree with all of you. It’s unfair to be financially penalized for sacrificing and making good decisions. It’s unfair to be penalized (financially and otherwise) for having parent who are unknowledgeable or uneducated or obtuse or whatever. And it’s unfair for students to get lifetime penalties mostly because they attend lousy primary and middle and high schools. Obviously Michigan public schools will attract more high achieving students if they dump need-based aid in favor of merit aid. It’s equally obvious (review the UTexas Law School experience) that evaluating everyone with a single measure results in disenfranchisement of some groups. So how do we go about solving this problem? Tax credits don’t help the poor and need-based aid doesn’t help the middle class. Merit aid doesn’t help the middle 50%, the population segment most college students come from.</p>