Here today, gone tomorrow. These are the words Florida State College in Jacksonville, students are using when referring to their financial aid.
In what would be any poor college student’s nightmare, more than 1,300 students of FSCJ will have to payback their Pell Grants to the government. The Pell Grants were awarded to them between the 2010-11 and the 2011-12 school years.
Apparently, the school goofed and gave Pell Grants to students submitting appeals without proper documentation, rather than following the initial application process.
A federal review found the school gave away these grants wrongfully, resulting in a $2.8 million loss from 780 students during the 2010-11 school year. Since then, another 500 illegitimate grants have surfaced for the following academic year.
Thus, these students are being forced to make up the difference in cash that they have already spent on tuition, books, rent or whatever else a college student needs.
Pell Grants are not the same as student loans, so when they are awarded, students don’t expect to pay the money back.
There is no reason to hold onto this money, which is why most of it is used up quickly on college expenditures.
While this money was unjustly given away, it is unfair to expect these students to pay back this money. It was not the students’ fault the school gave them the grants incorrectly.
The staff awarding the grants was not properly trained and gave away these grants erroneously.
The school has set aside $3 million to cover the costs, but as more illegitimate Pell Grant gaffs surface, it will likely not be enough. So now it falls upon the shoulders of these students to either come up with a good reason why they deserved the money or bite the bullet and sign up for a payment plan.
Some will say that even though the students were not responsible for receiving the money, they were still rewarded money that was not theirs to have. Financial aid has never been an entitlement, it is a privilege.
Financial aid isn’t a right, but once it is awarded, it is a student’s money to spend, however he or she sees fit. Students should be able to spend their grants without the worry that it will need to be paid back. That is what loans are for.
There are strict regulations as to who receives grants from the government. They are reserved for low-income undergraduates.
Students receive Pell Grants based on financial need, the status of student and the overall price of tuition.
If both the staff at FSCJ and students had a better understanding as to what qualifies a student for financial aid, this problem would not exist.
The staff would not have given away unwarranted grants, and the students would not have applied for the grants in the first place.
Yet, at the end of the day it is hard to place the blame on the students. It was the school’s financial aid office that made the blunder, so FSCJ should pick up the tab. This probably isn’t the first time something like this will happen and errors in bureaucracy will continue to screw students out of their money.