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The Possible New Pell Grant: $4,925

It may be moot if President Bush follows through on his threat to veto a spending bill for education, health and labor programs. But for the moment, the Pell Grant program is enjoying an embarrassment of riches after years of stagnation.

Weeks after Congress approved and President Bush signed budget legislation to provide billions in federal mandatory funds that will add $490 to the maximum Pell Grant in 2008, negotiators from the Senate and House of Representatives reached agreement Thursday on a spending bill for the Education Department and other agencies that would raise the maximum grant by another $125 through the annual appropriations process.

If that increase holds — and the odds are iffy at best, given the president’s threatened veto — the federal government’s core program for needy students will have seen its maximum grant rise from $4,050 (where it was stuck for five years) in January to $4,925, a 21.6 percent increase. That includes the $260 increase that the new Democratic Congress added in its spending bill for 2007 ($4,310); the $125 increase that Congress has settled on for 2008 ($4,435); and the $490 in additional funds from the College Cost Reduction and Access Act ($4,925).

“This session of Congress is truly the Pell Grant Congress,” said an ebullient Cynthia A. Littlefield, director of federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. She and other college lobbyists had been warned that an increase in discretionary (or annually appropriated) funds for Pell were unlikely because of the infusion of money from the budget legislation. The Senate’s own spending bill, in fact, proposed no increase above the 2007 level of $4,310, while the House’s companion legislation called for an increase to $4,700. As in many cases in such negotiations, the lawmakers came down somewhere in between.

The conference agreement reached by the House and Senate negotiators Thursday on the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies also would:

  • Provide $30 billion in funds for the National Institutes of Health, up from $28.9 million in 2007 and $100 million more than the Senate had proposed in its version of the 2008 spending bill.
  • Increase spending on the TRIO programs for low-income students to $868 million, up from $828 million in 2007, consistent with what the House proposed, and $10 million more than the Senate had proposed. The GEAR UP program, which also helps needy students prepare for college, would receive $318 million, $15 million more than last year.
  • Keep spending flat for the campus-based aid programs and the Leveraging Educational Assistance Program, rejecting cuts that President Bush had sought in his 2008 budget.
  • Provide $515 million for minority serving and other colleges under Title III of the Higher Education Act, $10 million more than the programs received in 2007 but about $140 million less than the House had recommended.

The appropriations legislation also keeps a provision that would require all research financed by the National Institutes of Health to be published online and made freely available. Advocates for open access favor the measure, but publishers generally oppose it.

President Bush has repeatedly vowed to veto the spending legislation for these agencies because it would spend billions more than the president himself recommended for the departments. He has characterized the spending as fiscally irresponsible, while Democrats said the new funds were needed to make up for important social services that had been starved while Republicans controlled Congress.

Doug Lederman

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Comments

Just Pass The Darn Thing

We have been waiting, patiently at first but not so patiently now, for the spending bill to get through Congress. It has been literally years now. Many are tired of watching and waiting. Just go on and pass the thing for goodness sakes.

Waiting Not So Patiently, at 8:30 am EDT on November 2, 2007

age disscrimination

I hope this and other reforms are passed that help out all struggling college students-however if you are over the age of 29 expect to be disapointed, the system has filtering points that cutoff those based on age. I just talked with a staff person at the main office to see why I was refused. My PGA was great, but my overall numbers based on age was 0 out of 18 this catagory should be raised or clearly removed. granted many youths are little or no work experience and college is definity the highest road to take, however for someone like myself becomming injured and having no visable viable income-age should not be a factor. this also points to the ethical stance of out society which treats all those injured pr elderly a throw away commodities. I believe the best thing possible is to of course raise the pell status for those within the 18-29 age bracket as well as open the rights of those older than 29 to recieve equal status under the law.

greg crawford, pell good for some at phi theta kappa-vp of service, at 9:25 am EDT on November 3, 2007

Please Pres. Bush — do not veto.

I am a college student and work as a preschool teacher. The pell grant has helped me since the beginning of my educational journey. I love the fact that I qualify, but every now and then I don’t have enough for my books. The extra money will really help. I hope this goes into effect before I graduate. :)

Dayna Doan, at 9:00 pm EST on November 4, 2007

It’s a national embarrassment that the maximum Pell amount has declined in purchasing power over the past twenty years. According to the College Board: “In 1986-87, the maximum Pell Grant covered about 52 percent of the average published price of tuition and fees and room and board at a public four-year institution and 21 percent at the average private college. In 2006-07, it covered 32 percent at a public four-year college and 13 percent at a private college."College becomes less affordable and accessible when the Pell grant’s purchasing power declines. Our nation’s immense prosperity should be used to create greater equity and opportunity.

Eric Neutuch, at 10:20 am EST on November 7, 2007

Accountability for Future Funding

While I agree something needs to be done to increase access and retention of minority, low-income, first-generation students, pouring tax dollars into programs that continue to yield low investment results needs to be revisited. Programs such as the TRIO, Gear-Up and Minority-Serving Institutions have been receiving dollars to increase minority enrollment and access to college for well over twenty years, however, college graduation and entry ratio of students assisted through these programs is minimal. In other words, the end result of these tax dollars does not substantiate increased funding but rather, in my opinion, a need to understand why. The why is better answered through qualitative data, gathered from the students (children in the case of Gear-Up) who have been assisted in past; then and only then will we understand the barriers these students encountered to their academic success.

In higher education we know a barrier exist, and if the problem is not the program then isn’t it time that we ask the students / children. Qualitative data (personal or telephone interviews) may be the only way to understand if personal, social, cultural and/or institutional barriers were the reason these students did not enter or complete their higher education. Thus, a possible next step for these federally funded programs is to consider mandating a pilot study of qualitative data from the colleges / universities who were fortunate to receive funding this year.

Dr. Garcia, at 11:40 am EST on November 14, 2007

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