Let’s revamp our approach to student financial aid

With the Las Vegas and Nevada economies facing tough times, now might be just the time to rethink and revamp our state and national approach to student financial aid.

Twenty years ago, I remember you could get a job parking cars at a resort on the Strip and make $50,000. When I was in college, many of my friends left school for that type of opportunity. At the time, our thriving economy was a big disincentive for Nevada's citizens to earn a postsecondary credential.

Fast forward to today and we are suffering layoffs in the state's predominant industry while industries such as mine are mindful of the quality and depth of our future work force. Renewable energy is a growth industry, and we need highly specialized workers with college degrees. To deal with some of the world's most pressing energy and environmental challenges, we need lawyers, accountants, engineers, scientists and economists, to name a few.

Our state's population has always been incredibly intelligent and entrepreneurial. We are capable of attaining these degrees, but without access to higher education opportunities our ability to nurture our intellectual resources is hampered.

NV Energy is investing in our university system to try to improve the pipeline of Nevada students ready to pursue the opportunities we offer. We just donated $500,000 each to UNLV and UNR to create minors in renewable energy.

But we are facing tough challenges. We're in a global recession, and state budgets are strapped even with federal stimulus funds. With state support declining, it has never been more important to have a convenient, comprehensive, federal student aid system that serves our children and our economy.

The good news is there is a growing sense of urgency to make financial aid more effective for students. Last week business leaders, college administrators, policy makers and advocates for students will met on UNLV's campus to discuss fundamentally revamping the nation's financial aid system to be more predictable, reliable, clear and easy to use. We are gathering under the shared recognition that the current economic crisis provides a prime opportunity to challenge some sacred cows and status quo thinking.

Some of the answers are easy, like eliminating the complicated financial aid application students and their parents are required to fill out to receive aid. The federal government can get all needed financial information about parents and students from the Internal Revenue Service.

The time and money spent administering and analyzing the snarls of forms can be better spent recruiting first-generation college students and helping them prepare for college financially and academically.

A federal savings program would go even further, giving low- and middle-income families another incentive to start planning early for college. Money in the bank when the child is in middle school would spark higher aspirations and help parents and students to plan and prepare both financially and academically.

President Obama has said he wants the United States to lead the world by 2020 in the proportion of college graduates. It was a position the country had long held; it now ranks seventh for the 25-to-34 age group. We won't get there with our current financial aid system.

To pull out of the current economic crisis and achieve the president's bold goals, America needs a wholly updated, simpler financial aid system that puts students first and achieves more for every precious tax dollar spent. I hope our state and federal lawmakers can agree and reconsider how student aid can deliver more for every dollar spent.

Tony Sanchez is NV Energy's senior vice president for public policy and external affairs.