Group Says Needy Students Face Aid Cuts

President Reagan’s proposed budget for fiscal 1986 would reduce federal aid for a quarter of a million students from poor families by an average of $1,160 apiece, a group representing public colleges said Wednesday.

Allan W. Ostar, president of the American Assn. of State Colleges and Universities, said his group’s analysis of the impact shows that “the Reagan Administration’s claim that the cuts would affect only middle-income students . . . is false.”

The group based its claim on a survey of financial records of 15,616 students at 371 public and private institutions in 1983-84. Student aid officers at the schools provided information on the recipients’ family income and the type of federal aid they received.

According to the analysis:

--500,000 students with family incomes below $25,000 would lose some aid, including 237,000 with incomes below $6,000.

--Among those losing some aid would be 105,000 minority students with family incomes below $25,000, including 61,000 with incomes below $6,000.

--Some 23,600 women raising children on incomes of less than $25,000 would lose some of their financial aid.

For students with family incomes below $6,000, the federal aid would drop by an average of $1,160, according to the study.

Reagan has asked Congress to deny guaranteed student loans to students from families with incomes above $32,500 and to limit to $4,000 the total aid that even the poorest students could draw, including guaranteed loans, Pell Grants and work-study earnings.

In addition, he would allow any student to borrow up to $4,000 under a less generously subsidized loan program that charges interest while the borrower is still in school.