Free Exchange on Campus - U.S. House CUTS Pell Grant Funding

U.S. House CUTS Pell Grant Funding

Written by cps
Thursday, 08 June 2006
Cuts?! What?! Didn’t you just read story after story about the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies raising the Pell grant by $100? Sure you did. Is this just another story whining about disinvestment in higher education? Sure it is. Unless, of course, you happen to believe that higher education should be thought of as a public good and we should be figuring out how to help more people attend college rather than making it harder. So let’s look at just what the House subcommittee did with Pell grants. First of all, they did, in fact, raise the maximum grant by $100—it’s about time! The maximum Pell grant has been flat funded for the last five years—ah, that’s okay, cost of living has probably remained pretty constant for the last five years, right? And let’s not even talk about the purchasing power of the Pell grant! OK, let’s talk about it. In 2005, Center for American Progress reported that “[i]t would be necessary to more than double the Pell maximum award to recover the losses in the purchasing power of Pell.” But hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? Of course, let’s not get too riled up—remember this was a subcommittee of one chamber of Congress (remember that old adage about legislation and sausage?) and as Rep. Obey (D-WI) reminds us, we have been down this road before: “Last year, Bush’s budget called for a $100 increase in the maximum Pell Grant amount, the House recommended a $[50] increase and at final count, the funding remained flat.” But wait, what about the title of this post? Is it just a provocation or is there something to it? Were Pell grants cut or not? Well, here is the key piece of information from the Inside Higher Ed article: *The bill would set the overall Pell Grant funding at about $13 billion, a slight decrease from a year ago* but a modest increase from what Bush’s budget proposes. What does that mean? I’ll tell you what it means. It means that the Republican leadership is trying to get press coverage for “raising” the Pell grants by raising the maximum grant allowed, while simultaneously cutting the total amount going to Pell grants—i.e., fewer people will get financial aid or a smaller pool of money will be spread over larger pool of applicants (remember, college enrollment is on the rise) meaning less money for more people—great! In other words, the key information here is not that the leadership made some token commitment to raising the maximum grant, but rather that the subcommittee CUT the total appropriations for Pell grants. I hear the rebuttal now—we can always cover a shortfall later! Now that’s commitment! What could be driving such empty promises? Rewind to the WaPo story—what was the lead again? Oh yeah: A House panel on Wednesday approved a huge election-year bill that boosts spending for some domestic social programs.** Right, mid-terms. Here’s an idea. What say we get a little less concerned about “fiscally reckless” efforts like repealing the estate tax for wealthy Americans and start making real commitments to helping the majority of college students and their families? Tags:
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