Increase Financial Education and Aid

Despite the strengthening of consumer protections, student aid regulations and proactive work by school counselors and financial aid administrators, the burden of making wise financial decisions about postsecondary education falls squarely on the shoulders of teenage students who are often unprepared to do so. Students' decisions about postsecondary education should be informed through formal financial education beginning in elementary school.
 
While statistics about the many public and private benefits of degree attainment can provide insight for policy makers, they are less useful to the individual student. In order to make enrollment and financing choices that are in their long-term best interests, students must evaluate their options in relation to their particular situations. Students must get an accurate sense of what degrees yield in the marketplace. They must understand credit scoring and use expected family contribution and net price calculators. They should know the long-term implications of student loan borrowing. And, we need to emphasize that financial well-being is about more than just income; it is having an understanding of the difference between needs and wants, saving, the rules of credit and strategy based on changing circumstances. Only through personal financial education will students be wise consumers of higher education.  

We know that there is a strong relationship between educational attainment, personal income and economic strength in NH. Therefore, we must advocate for college-prepared, low-income students to receive state-funded grants for postsecondary education. Through our K-12 outreach programs, we often encourage families to adopt a self-reliant posture when planning for higher education costs. While this approach works for many, self-reliance means something different for families struggling just to put food on the table. College seems a distant possibility without support from outside resources.
 
Last fiscal year the State Legislature approved a budget that included the largest percentage cut to public higher education in the nation and, even more disturbing, elimination of state appropriations for financial aid to NH residents attending college. Investment in talented young people benefits our State's economic development and our democracy. College-bound NH citizens with great potential, but profound need, should be supported to pursue public higher education.

Ren Drouin is president and CEO of The NHHEAF Network Organizations in Concord, which provides free college planning assistance to NH residents. He can be reached at 603-225-6612 or 800-525-2577. For more information, visit www.nhheaf.org or www.iamcollegebound.org.