church or the government. Sounds like the government is being fairly prudent by saying that a kid's parents who are in a position to help should do so before resorting to the taxpayer to help.

Means-testing government benefits makes a lot of sense. It would be easy for a trust fund kid to claim that his parents don't help him so he can receive a pell grant, then use that grant as extra cash for mom and dad. You may not like it for your situation where you've chosen not to help your kid with school (even though your posting history suggests it wouldn't be difficult for you to do so), but it makes sense for the government to approach it this way.

If your intent is to try to teach your kid self reliance, why does the government need to facilitate that?