Reply to FA shouldn't go to people with 1 million dollar houses

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't understand the philosophical confusion.  We want aid to be based on need.  Not based on how big a cry baby you are.[/quote]

I think the issue stems, in part, from the relationship between admissions and aid.  I guess, in the end, I suspect there is (and I believe it's justified to have) a different standard for admissions depending on whether or not the parents can pay.  If the parents can pay tuition, then the question is is the student qualified (can they do the work) and a more attractive candidate (for whatever reasons) than other qualified students whose parents can pay.  OTOH, once we're talking about the school community providing reduced or free tuition for students, then the question becomes whom do we want to subsidize?  One answer is people who bring something to our school community that tuition-paying members generally don't bring.  Another is kids who will get the most out of this opportunity -- and that judgment may touch on all sort of things -- capacity for learning, alternatives to private, resources within the family/home environment, motivation, etc.

Clearly "need" isn't the only basis aid is distributed on -- private schools aren't admitting the least well-off pupils because they are the neediest.  And if you go on "merit," when we're talking about young children what you are often doing is selecting based on privilege --parents' educational background, affluence, etc.   And that may mean that the kids who least "need" private school have a better shot of getting FA than the kids who would benefit most from the subsidy.  It all gets trickier when you take into account the fact that aid's not all or nothing -- then you have additional questions about how many people you want to help and about the distribution of incomes within the school.  So it's not obvious what the right policies are but these are very real (and, yes, somewhat philosophical) questions that are being raised. [/quote]

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