College financial aid isn’t reaching some of Maryland’s neediest families, according to a new report from the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

“It’s very sobering,” commission Chairman Kevin O’Keefe said.

The report says the state gives only half its financial aid to Maryland’s neediest students and that public colleges give only a quarter of their financial aid to the neediest students. The report defines Maryland’s neediest as students whose families expect to contribute less than $2,500 a year for college tuition.

Other financial aid from the state and its colleges is given in the form of merit aid to reward academic performance and career aid to steer students into jobs with known shortages.

This story continues below
Advertisement

“Where students do have high levels of need ... we are not [always] meeting it,” said Andrea Mansfield, assistant secretary for finance policy for the Higher Education Commission.

Mansfield said the state should consider contributing more to need-based aid and rewarding colleges that provide more need-based aid.

O’Keefe said many of Maryland’s colleges, particularly public colleges, have in the past focused on merit-based aid to boost their academic profile.

“That gap is still there. ... We are still trying to catch up,” Mansfield said.

But she said Maryland has made progress in getting more need-based aid to students in the past four years, according to the report.

Funding for state need-based aid nearly doubled from fiscal 2004 to fiscal 2008 to $85.4 million, reaching 12,000 additional students.

Additionally, the University System of Maryland reported that need-based institutional aid is up 12 percent from fiscal 2004 and that efforts are being made to limit debt for its neediest students, the report said.

mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com