November 26, 2004
-
November 25, 2004
EDITORIAL
Undermining the Pell Grants
aunted by soaring costs, as many as a quarter of low-income students with grades and test scores that make them prime college material no longer even apply to college. This is bad news at a time when skilled jobs are moving abroad and a college diploma has become the minimum price of admission to the new economy. The Bush administration, however, could actually make this problem worse by cutting the federal Pell grant program, which was developed to encourage poor and working-class students to pursue higher education.
The pending cut could cause as many as 1.2 million low-income students to have their grants reduced – and as many as 100,000 could lose their grants altogether. That inevitably means that students would either drop out or take longer to finish their degrees.
The Pell program, which is meant to help students pay for tuition and other expenses, like books and housing, has been gravely underfinanced for a long time. Congress has tried to mask the problem by tricky bookkeeping. In particular, Congress failed to revise the maximum grant to keep pace with rising costs. Left untouched for a decade, the aid formula is still capped at around $4,000 a year – far less than what it takes to support a college student. The Republican leadership tried to cut the Pell program by changing the formula for distributing the money in a way that would cut out students who had higher – although still inadequate – family incomes. The leaders backed off when middle-income families protested and student aid threatened to become an issue in the presidential campaign.
Back then, Congress agreed to hold off on any changes until it could look at the student aid problem as a whole during reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which is due to come before the body next year. But with the election behind it, the Republican leadership has advanced a proposal that could slash the program anyway, by roughly $300 million. Eliminating the resources to help needy and qualified students go to college will not even put a dent in the nation’s growing deficit, but it will greatly diminish opportunities for upward mobility for the nation’s youth.
——————————————————————-
——————————————————————-
Pell Grant recipients face cuts to aid
As many as a million college students could see their federal Pell Grants reduced, including an estimated 80,000 that could see their grants disappear entirely, under new rules approved by Congress.
The change was due to a legally-required update of tax rules used to determine grant eligibility — Congress actually boosted funding for the program by about $450 million. However, the maximum award will stay the same because of steadily rising demand for the low-income grants.
According to the UC Davis Financial Aid Office, 6,765 UCD students receive the grants — nearly one in four. Many grants are awarded according to financial need, and Pell Grants are designed to go to the neediest groups. Merriah Fairchild, spokesperson for the California Public Interest Research Group, said a reduction in Pell awards could make it impossible for some students to attend college.
“I think these cuts, combined with fee increases that students are already struggling with, could be the tipping point for many students who are already on the financial margins,” she said.
However, Katy Maloney, associate director of the financial aid office, said students who lose some or all of their Pell Grants would have other options for covering their tuition costs. Maloney said that most students who lose Pell Grant money would be able to make up the difference by receiving an increase in other grants, such as university grants.
“It should be okay, for those that are on time and do everything they need to,” she said. Maloney noted that university grant applications must be received by Mar. 2, unlike Pell Grants, which have an open application period.
The new Pell Grant rules were approved during the weekend of Nov. 18 and 19. Previous eligibility guides used tax law from 1988 to determine how much a student should be expected to contribute to their education. But taxes were higher in 1988 than the 2001 standards, so the new rules are expected to find applicants paying fewer taxes and therefore able to contribute more to their tuition.
The Department of Education is legally required to use updated tax rules, but Fairchild characterized the move as the government passing off the burden of paying for education.
“Essentially, Congress is deciding to pay for budget shortfalls out of the pockets of students,” she said. “It’s a sneaky way to shift the burden onto students and it’s an indication that Congress is not prioritizing higher education.”
Fairchild urged concerned students to get involved by lobbying elected officials, making phone calls, writing letters or organizing events to get media attention. While federal education funding is at its highest levels ever, Fairchild said the new grants were not keeping pace with inflation and the rising cost of tuition.
She said CalPIRG was campaigning to have the maximum Pell Grant award raised by $450 to $4,500, a goal she said would be “very challenging, given the make-up of Congress.”
BEN ANTONIUS can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com
—————————————-
—————————————-
