<p>^ tokenadult,</p>
<p>I appreciate the problem you’re pointing to, but what are you suggesting as a solution? Eliminate public higher education on grounds that it subsidizes the affluent? That would only further exacerbate the inequality, wouldn’t it?</p>
<p>It seems to me a central challenge here is to reach out to socioeconomically disadvantaged but academically capable students and make it clear to them early on that college is a realistic option. That, it seems to me, is the singular advantage of these uniform taxpayer-supported merit aid programs: the benchmark is clear, “Do this well and we’ll help you go to college.” The present process is completely opaque to far too many socioeconomically disadvantaged kids, many of whom never even take SATs or ACTs, or if they they get that far and do well, in many cases don’t pursue college out of a (possibly mistaken) belief they can’t afford it, or end up settling for a community college or lower-tier school than they are qualified for. But the idea that if you show 'em the money up front they’re more likely to pursue it strikes me as very plausible.</p>