Despite benefiting from the Oregon Opportunity Grant, Senior Lorena Landeros has been forced to take out loans and work up to two jobs to fund her college education.
“I’m constantly worried about how I’m going to pay for the classes I need to graduate,” she said.
Landeros, who also serves as the ASUO Multicultural Advocate, is precisely the kind of student who stands to benefit from the Shared Responsibility Model, a proposal contained in the Governor’s Recommended Budget that would radically change the way the Oregon Opportunity Grant is administered. Today, Landeros and the Oregon Student Association will testify before the Oregon Senate Education Committee about how the model could potentially impact students.
If the legislature approves the model and the $35 million funding increase needed for the program, around 20,000 additional students will become eligible for the grant and the average grant size will increase about $600 to $1,800, according to the Oregon Student Association.
Currently, the Oregon Opportunity Grant covers 11 percent of an eligible student’s cost of attendance, regardless of the student’s need. The grant is not only inadequate for students like Landeros, but it also was unavailable to all qualifying students from 2000 to 2005 because of lack of funding.
“This shows that the Oregon Opportunity Grant doesn’t necessarily fill the (affordability) gap anymore,” she said. “The new Shared Responsibility Model will allow for an increase in grants for students who need it most.”
The Shared Responsibility Model calculates a student’s grant money based on a number of factors. First, it considers a student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC), a figure calculated by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which determines how much a family should contribute to a student’s education. It then adds to that money received through federal grants. It expects a student to pay approximately $7,500 each year, which could be made up through scholarships, moderate borrowing and a part-time job. The amount of a student’s educational costs that are not covered by the EFC, federal grants and the student’s annual $7,500 would be covered by the Oregon Opportunity Grant.
“It greatly expands the amount of people who are eligible for the grant because it’s not a flat amount. It’s a sloped amount,” said Melissa Unger, director of the Oregon Student Association. “It’s now based on the student’s actual ability to pay and go to college.”
According to Student Financial Aid Director Elizabeth Bickford, the model was developed with the idea that needy students could work part time, take on moderate borrowing and still make ends meet.
“It allows (students) to look at college and be able to attend without working two or three jobs and taking out a lot of loans … so they can focus on their academics,” she said.
In developing the governor’s recommendation, the Oregon University System calculated that a student could make $4,750 working a minimum wage job 10 hours a week during the school year and full time during the summer. The rest of a student’s contribution could be made up with moderate borrowing – approximately $3,000 a year – that would result in a manageable amount of student debt.
Landeros said the new model could have made a dramatic difference in her educational experience. In addition to working at the ASUO, she also works at a daycare and nannies, tallying up about 30 hours a week. She said she’ll graduate with more than $20,000 in loan debt, far more than she ever expected do borrow.
“One of the big deals is students having to deal with a huge load of homework and having to work 30 hours,” she said. “I think it would have given me less to worry about.”
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