"Independent" Students Gaming Financial Aid: ProPublica Illinois article

[polly_mer]

https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-financial-aid-fafsa-parents-guardianship-children-students

The short version is parents turn over legal guardianship of their 16-17 year-old to friends or family and then the teenager can apply to college as someone unsupported by their parents to get more financial aid than if they were a dependent of their parents.

People interviewed for the article are angry that the families who know to do this are generally those well enough off financially and able to contribute to their child's education, but the students are now eligible for programs designed for the truly struggling.

The commentariat point out that this situation is closely related to why many people support changing how higher ed is funded so that family resources play much less of a role in where one can attend college.

Thoughts?

[phattangent]

The following statement in one of the article's comments raised an interesting point:

The system presumes parents will assist, and often they've no intention of assisting.

It's an awkward legal dance. Students, who are often legal adults, are legally required to depend on their parents, while parents are not legally required to provide assistance. After all, higher education is optional.

[aside]

I will not paint all parents who do this with the same broad brush, yet it is despicable that some well-to-do parents are doing this solely to gain access to need-based funding for which they would not otherwise qualify.  For these particular well-to-do parents, it is not an act of desperation to get their child into higher education, but a way to save money they could afford to pay.  What makes it despicable is that the budgetary allotments for federal, state, and university aid have fixed limits; these pies are only so big, and if these parents manipulate the system in order to get a piece of theses pies, there is that much less pie for those who are truly deserving.  According to the article this is not illegal.

[Ranganathan]

I vote for despicable. My younger sister tried very hard to get "independent" status because my father not only refused to pay anything towards her schooling, but refused to share the tax data needed for the FAFSA. She would have to wait until he was out of the house and go through his files to get the documents, make copies, and return them before he noticed. Her college's financial aid office was sympathetic but said the rules for being an independent were very, very strict and she couldn't do it.