Of all federal higher-education programs, none seems more directly threatened by Congressional budget cutters this year than the Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership program, which was designed to bolster states’ need-based student-aid programs, including work-study.
The program, which requires states to match the federal dollars it provides for need-based aid, has been on the chopping block many times over the past decade. But now, with newly empowered Republicans promising austere budgets, the program appears especially vulnerable, particularly because Democrats have hardly been championing it. President Obama’s budget last year proposed no money for the program; nor did a Senate Democratic budget that was debated last fall.
But the elimination of LEAP, which helpsthousands of students, could threaten the survival of some states’ main need-based student-aid programs, which are also facing state budget cuts. And, LEAP’s advocates say, the end of the federal program could allow many low- and middle-income students to fall through the cracks of student-aid systems.
LEAP, which now receives close to $64-million, was created in 1972 as a way for the federal government to encourage states to allocate money to grant programs for needy students.
For the most part, it has been successful, in the sense that most states now have need-based programs. When LEAP began, only 28 states allocated any money for need-based aid. Now, every state provides money for such programs, although several of them still rely heavily on federal matching funds.
Victim of Its Success
The program’s very success, though, has made it ripe for cuts in recent years, with some policy makers believing that state programs do not need the federal dollars anymore. Several presidents, including Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, have tried to kill LEAP, proposing in their budgets to eliminate federal money for the aid. President Obama’s plan for the current fiscal year, which he released last February, included no money for the program. His new budget is scheduled to be released this month.
Officials in the Education Department say the program has outlived its purpose. A detailed report on the department’s student-aid budget this year said federal assistance for state need-based aid programs is no longer necessary because most states have their own programs.
“A key part of the purpose of LEAP (to encourage states to provide need-based aid programs, especially grant programs) no longer exists, so there’s no reason for the program to exist,” Sara Gast, a spokeswoman for the department, wrote in an e-mail.
Ms. Gast said the department is also shifting its focus more toward Pell Grants, the federal need-based grants that go to the lowest-income students. Congress closed a multibillion-dollar shortfall in the Pell program in December, as it has had to do every fiscal year since 2008. President Obama has called for making Pell Grants an entitlement, like Medicare or Social Security, with financing decisions removed from the annual appropriations process in an effort to make sure the program is paid for each year. He has also recommended that the maximum Pell Grant award automatically increase each year of this decade by the rate of inflation plus one percentage point.
To help offset the cost of his proposed increases for Pell Grants, President Obama proposed eliminating LEAP and two merit-based grant programs. Ms. Gast said Pell Grants are the most efficient way to reach the neediest students. Unlike LEAP funds, Pell money goes directly to students, rather than being funneled through the states.
Pell Grants are, she said, “a more direct way of helping make college more affordable for the students who need funds the most.”
Meanwhile, overall state contributions to need-based aid continue to rise. The 50 states, and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, spent a total of $10.3-billion on student financial aid in the 2008-9 academic year, the most recent data available, representing a 2.7-percent increase from the previous year, according to the National Association of State Student Grant & Aid Programs.
“I think it’s a victim of its own success,” Lee Andes, chairman of the student-grant association’s federal-relations committee, said of LEAP. “Some might think that the program has completed its task and is no longer necessary.”
A Key Incentive
Although it’s true that most states now have their own need-based aid programs, Mr. Andes said LEAP money is the main thing propping up some of the weaker ones, in states where spending on education has historically been low. Eliminating the federal aid, he said, could cause some of those programs to collapse. Without the matching federal dollars as a carrot, some states might abandon their programs altogether, especially if they are facing tough budget choices.
“There are many states that already have a robust need-based program, but there are some states that rely on LEAP as an incentive to maintain their need-based aid,” Mr. Andes said.
In Arizona and Wyoming, the federal-state LEAP partnership is the primary need-based student-aid program; in Georgia and South Dakota, it is the only need-based program. Officials in those states worry that the elimination of the federal program could leave some low-income students with few, if any, programs to turn to at all.
Paul Turman, associate vice president of academic affairs for the South Dakota Board of Regents, says the program provides aid for students who don’t get the grades to qualify for merit-based aid and don’t meet the income requirements for Pell Grants from the federal government.
“Sometimes, LEAP and state-based programs help fill that gap for them,” he said.
South Dakota’s Board of Regents and the State Legislature have frequently butted heads over how much to spend for LEAP, Mr. Turman said. In the mid-1990s, the state eliminated all of its contributions to LEAP, leaving South Dakota with no publicly financed, need-based student-aid program. It was reinstated two years ago, and Mr. Turman says it is unlikely the state will create a new need-based program if the federal government ends LEAP.
Cutting LEAP would be devastating in Arizona, according to April L. Osborn, executive director of the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education. LEAP and the Special Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership, a subset of LEAP that helps financially needy students who study math, science, and technology-related fields, constitute about 51 percent of that state’s need-based student aid.
Ms. Osborn said the program was an important incentive in Arizona, where budget shortfalls in recent years have prompted the fiscally conservative State Legislature to cut student-aid programs. It’s unlikely the Legislature would have the money or the political will to replace LEAP with a state-run student-aid program, she said.
Cutting LEAP, Ms. Osborn added, “will have a bigger impact than most people realize.”
Kelly Field contributed to this article.
