FSA is an agency in the US department of education charged with the responsibility of ensuring that grants and loans are availed to students in time. It is one of the largest providers of funs to students in the US at the federal level. Apart from offering loans to students, the agency is also charged with the task of providing work-study funds to needy students.
The agency comes up with policies aimed at assisting needy students, by designing forms in a way that would benefit only the needy. The agency works closely with other agencies in the department of education to ensure that all students, irrespective of race, social status, and ethnicity, achieve high education.
In the 2010 academic calendar, the agency distributed over $144 billion to fifteen million students from humble backgrounds. The agency is allocated over $864 billion each year. The role of the agency is to ensure that stakeholders are involved in the allocation of student funds.
Since most families are unaware that loans and grants are available for needy students, the agency ensures that parents receive information in time to enable their children to continue with education beyond high school. Recently, the agency embarked on a mission of opening call centers in a number of cities. Moreover, it publishes books and other print materials for parents and students.
In the last twenty –five years, the Federal Student Aid has undergone a number of changes due to increased student population. Each year, the number of students joining colleges and universities has been increasing. The agency has been forced to design new policies to cope with the new challenges.
Currently, the enrolment rates among various ethnicities, races, and social statuses have gone up. However, the financial gap between the rich and the poor is ever increasing. The old system of loan distribution favored students from rich families. It can be observed that new policies in the agency tend to generate a culture of overreliance on loans. In other words, the agency prefers loaning students rather than offering grants.
This affected students in a number of ways because the major aim of the agency is to ensure equality and fairness. The agency was established to ensure that all students access high education through offering financial help to the needy. However, this has changed because the poor no longer benefit from the agency.
Even for the poor families, loans are the major source of funding for their high education. In 1994, the agency gave out over $26 billion in form of loans. The agency was established to offer grants and financial assistance to students, not loans.
In the modern society, people pursue their academic dreams even at old age. It is common to see a family person attending classes to strengthen his or her knowledge base. In this regard, the agency has formulated new policies to cater for this category of students. In 1992, the Congress passed a bill allowing old students to access funds from the agency.
However, the loans were restricted to widowed or divorced individuals. Finally, the agency expanded its mandate to cover financial needs of students attending vocational training. This brought about changes in the education sector because it encouraged private organizations to come up with short courses.
References
Baum, S., & Ma, J. (2007). Education Pays 2007. New York: The College Board.
Goldin, C., & Katz, L. (2008). The Race between Education and Technology: The Evolution of U.S. Educational Wage Differentials, 1890 to 2005. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.