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College Financial-Aid Loophole: Wealthy Parents Transfer Guardianship of Their Teens to Get Aid
Amid an intense national furor over the fairness of college admissions, the Education Department is looking into a tactic that has been used in some suburbs here, in which wealthy parents transfer legal guardianship of their college-bound children to relatives or friends so the teens can claim financial aid, say people familiar with the matter.
The strategy caught the department's attention amid a spate of guardianship transfers here. It means that only the children's earnings were considered in their financial-aid applications, not the family income or savings. That has led to awards of scholarships and access to federal financial aid designed for the poor, these people said.
Several universities in Illinois say they are looking into the practice, which is legal. "Our financial-aid resources are limited and the practice of wealthy parents transferring the guardianship of their children to qualify for need-based financial aid—or so-called opportunity hoarding—takes away resources from middle- and low-income students," said Andrew Borst, director of undergraduate enrollment at the University of Illinois. "This is legal, but we question the ethics."
Also At:
https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-financial-aid-fafsa-parents-guardianship-children-students
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/7/29/20746376/u-of-i-parents-giving-up-custody-kids-get-need-based-college-financial-aid-university-illinois
(Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:53PM (1 child)
Can we look up in our social contracts on page 241 where it says that the primary assertion of (contemporary neo-whatever crony) Capitalism as the categoricaly imperative greatest of all time system hangs on the single assumption that it is the best system for ensuring that the best people are given power.
However in so many empirically confirmable cases all manner of legal trickery and underhanded bullshit, and probably a lot more under the table even, is implemented by wealthy people to somehow have something extra outside of the law.
It's clear to me at least vast wealth has this way of giving people the idea that they are exceptions to all the rules and also attracting people who have no regard for others, it's why plutacracy is a bad form of government and so many things in our world are a horrible disgrace.
We could actually halt all yacht construction and golf in the country until Flint Michigan has functioning water pipes. Imagine. Minds blown.
That we're not building levees and systematically evacuating the coasts for good right now is outright murder in my opinion, but this is the type of scheme our alleged betters have time to plot, among others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @05:48PM
>We could actually halt all yacht construction and golf in the country
Not a good idea, those are some of the few things that actually extract money from the wealthy;)
Maybe tax them more