Giving Compass' Take:

• Andrew Johnson and Ryan Kinney explain how qualified high schoolers are prevented from attending college by cost or are saddled with debt when they graduate or drop out. 

• How can funders work to increase college affordability for low-income students? 

• Learn about programs for low-income as college students that work. 

What is truly scandalous is our state’s and our country’s failure to make college education a viable tool of socioeconomic mobility.

As college advisors in Chicago Public Schools, we know that high-profile malfeasance is beside the point. When our students do things the right way, and college admissions and financial aid systems work as they are supposed to, those systems still work against our students.

This plays out in several ways. One is cost: Over the last few decades, it has become increasingly difficult for academically qualified, low-income students to pay for college. We have worked with countless students who have gained admission to schools of their choice but could not afford to attend them, despite being eligible for “maximum” financial aid.

One reason is the declining value of the federal Pell grant. In the late 1960s, one of our parents put herself through college almost exclusively on the strength of her Pell grant. As recently as 1980, a full Pell grant covered 69 percent of the average cost of attendance for one year at a four-year school. As of 2017, the average grant value is down to 29 percent of a year’s full cost.

One of our students recently received her financial aid package from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While the overall award is outstanding, her full Pell grant covers just 20 percent of her total cost of attendance. The remainder is filled in by merit scholarships and institutional grants that the university is, fortunately, able to provide.

Not all of our students are as lucky. We worked with a high-achieving student last year who was eligible for maximum financial aid, but was still left with an out-of-pocket cost of $10,000 per year at Illinois State University and $9,000 at Western Illinois University — after taking out $5,000 in loans.

Read the full article about high schoolers who can't afford college by Andrew Johnson and Ryan Kinney at Chalkbeat.