Bill would require 2:1 state financial aid ratio

PHOENIX - The Arizona Students Association reminded legislators yesterday of a financial aid agreement made more than 15 years ago and asked the state to update the agreement to help more students pay for college.

A bill passed by the Senate Higher Education Committee yesterday would require the state to give more to the Arizona Financial Aid Trust than ever before. The fund is a combination of student and state contributions and supplements federal aid for university students in the state.

A portion of each student's tuition goes into the fund and when the fund was created in the 1980s, the state agreed to contribute the same amount as the students each year.

But Alistair Chapman, Associated Students of the University of Arizona president, said the state has not matched student funds in recent years.

Sponsored by Sen. Harry Mitchell, D-Tempe and Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-Tempe, the bill would require the state to contribute twice as much as students, with a 2-to-1 matching of funds.

It would also allow more students access to the money in the fund. Right now, half of the money raised each year for the fund is used for financial aid for students and half is left in an endowment for future aid.

The bill would change those proportions so students would have access to 75 percent of the money raised each year.

Chapman said this would mean about 8,000 more UA students would receive financial aid from the fund each year, and it would help offset continually-increasing tuition.

"This would protect the needy students from rapidly increasing costs," said Chapman, a molecular and cellular biology senior.

He said that with the 63 percent tuition increase over the last three years, Arizona students need help paying for college.

Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, said he was concerned with the student leadership support he has seen for tuition increases.

He said student leaders have backed recent tuition increases, but then asked for more aid for students to afford the increases.

Chapman said he could not speak for anyone but himself, but he said that when student leaders come forward with their tuition recommendation Monday, it will be different from President Peter Likins' proposal and will include provisions for financial aid.

Mitchell said the cycle of college funding puts students "between a rock and a hard place."

He said that without raising tuition, the universities is not able to fund more classes and more resources for students, so it takes students longer to graduate. The longer students are in school, the more debt they accrue and the more financial aid they need.

"Just because we have a low tuition (comparatively) doesn't make us affordable," Mitchell said.

Russell Reiten, a public administration graduate student at Northern Arizona University, was the only student other than Chapman to testify to the committee on the necessity of the bill.

Reiten said he was the first in his family to go to college, and even with scholarships and grants, he needed to dip into the funds his mother had saved for him to go to school.

He said more students like him need help from the state, and increasing the amount going into the fund and the amount allotted to students each year is one solution.

"When you don't have enough money, little expenses become big expenses," Reiten said.

He explained, like Chapman, that the reduction in state support for the fund has hurt students and asked the committee to support the bill.

"Give students the chance to invest in their own education," Reiten said.

The bill still has to be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee before it faces the whole Senate. If it passes, the House of Representatives will consider the bill before it goes to the governor's office.