Quoted In: An Experiment in Merit-Based Student Aid Is Likely to End (Chronicle of Higher Education)

“The Obama administration has no plans to renew the Bush-era [Academic] Competitiveness Grants and their companion, the National Smart Grants, beyond their 2011 expiration date, meaning a likely end for America’s short-lived experiment with merit-based federal financial aid,"Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "Instead, the administration will focus its resources on the popular Pell Grant program, which is strictly need-based. Normally, efforts to end student-aid programs face fierce resistance from colleges. This time, though, hardly anyone is complaining. Created by Congress in 2006, the two programs have been an administrative nightmare for financial-aid officers, have never met participation targets, and have been criticized in Washington by Democrats and Republicans alike. "Few financial-aid administrators – and few students – will be shedding many tears for these programs that have disproportionately required so much administrative burden for schools and students and provided so little benefit in return," said Justin Draeger, vice president for public policy, advocacy, and research at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."

You can read the complete June 26, 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education article on-line.