College Money: The Middle Class Gulf

I am a young white male, born to a family that has risen to an upper-middle class status. My father never went to college; he joined the Air Force, then did contract work as a mechanic-turned-engineer. His knowledge of aircraft engines is nothing short of amazing. My mother went to college after raising four children and became a Special Education teacher. By all rights, I should have a good life. I DO have a good life. But there is one thing that people don't realize.

I'm not them.

Their income is, ultimately, worthless to me. Why? Because they aren't paying for my education. They aren't attending classes. I am. If only my income was taken into account, I'd be living around or below the poverty line. I work the front desk at a hotel to afford my classes. I also pay for car insurance, a cell phone, and any miscellaneous purchases or entertainment.

But this doesn't matter. Because my parents make money, I am not eligible for any financial aid. This plunges me directly into the non-need based free for all. Obviously, I carry some bias. But riddle me this: Why should America's potentially brightest minds be forced to focus more on the scholarship melee than their classes? I am not claiming it is easy for less privileged to make it to the college level. Far from it. The difficulties faced are considerably different from mine and thousands of others just like me.

My troubles are not unique. This affliction, this lack of finances, has been the bane of many young men and women's educational life. If this problem is neither new nor uncommon...why hasn't it been remedied?