<p>I like the plan – if strong efforts are made to inform poor families about the merit aid, and to provide those families with that information while the children are young enough to benefit from it. The information needs to be provided in a way that is understandable for parents who aren’t highly educated, and the information needs to be presented to everyone, not just the students whom the GCs think can go to college. </p>
<p>Poor families are not likely to have parents who have been to college, so the parents and kids tend to have no clue about what the kids need to do in school to be college bound. The information about what coursework to take, what grades to achieve, what tests to take needs to be given to them – verbally and in writing – each year in middle school and in high school.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen in my state that offers merit aid for college, middle and upper class kids know about the merit aid from at least the time they are in high school. Virtually every middle and upper class college student from my state whom I know got some state-sponsored merit aid to go to school in state. </p>
<p>The first generation college students and poor students, however, don’t find out about the aid until at best they are second semester seniors. Many have never considered college because they erroneously assumed that they couldn’t afford to go. As a result, they didn’t bother to achieve in school or they took courses that didn’t put them on track for college. Another possibility is that they erroneously think that because they are low income, they’ll get free rides to college.</p>
<p>I think that the same amount of money should be given to students whether they choose to go to instate public or private schools. Students shouldn’t get more money for choosing to go to a private school.</p>