State financial aid demand up, $ down

Mike Safford will be a senior at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay this fall.

A school year costs $12 thousand dollars for tuition, books room and board - so financial aid is important to the communications major.

"It allows me to attend school without the stress of having to work. It allows me to concentrate on my studies and have somewhat of a life," said Safford.

Safford isn't the only student in need.

"We have had an unprecedented number of contacts from students and parents," said UWGB Financial Aid Director Ron Ronnenberg.

Ronnenberg says demand for financial aid is up, but dollars are gone.

It's been a problem since July..after the campus had already granted aid to 12-hundred students.

"The Higher Educational Aids Board notified every institution in the UW System and said that we have to stop awarding state grants because they are running out of money," said Ronnenberg.

Ronnenberg says shutting off state grants is not unusual, but it never happens this early.

He says low-income students who applied for aid late, have lost out.

"They won't have any state grant at all. That's potentially almost a $3 thousand decrease in their financial aid award as to what they would have had in the past year," Ronnenberg said.

Funding for state grants is the same this school year as it was last school year.

It will increase $3.3 million in 2010-2011.

"This is a budget that even in the very toughest of times, we actually put more money into it for financial aid for higher education," said Governor Jim Doyle.

Governor Jim Doyle said while other states have cut financial aid dramatically, Wisconsin has doubled the amount of aid money over the last five years.

Still, the Wisconsin Higher Education Aids Board projects that more than 20 thousand low-income students will not receive the state grants and may have to rely more on other forms of aid.

Safford, who turned in his paperwork just a couple of weeks ago, is anxious to hear if he'll receive aid.

"Hopefully it turns out. If I can't get it, I'm going to be in kind of a bind," said Safford.

Ronnenberg says it's not too late to make the finances work for this year.

Loans may still be an option.

And the earlier you contact your school to work out a plan, the better.