The House Budget includes devastating changes to the Pell Grant program for low-income college students. Already severely underfunded, Pell Grants cover a fraction of the costs of college that they covered a generation ago, but the grants are still a lifeblood to many students.
In the House budget (that still has to be approved by the Senate), eligibility for Pell Grants would change. Inside Higher Ed summarized these changes in an article today:
The reconciliation bill would increase the amount of coursework required for students to get the maximum Pell Grant, from 24 to 30 credits per year, or 15 credits per semester. More than half of all students currently enrolled in higher ed institutions across the country would fall short of a full course load and see their grants shrink under the House’s proposal, the Congressional Budget Office estimated.
and:
In a more drastic change, the budget also seeks to eliminate Pell Grants entirely for students attending college less than half-time. Under the bill, students would need to enroll in at least 7.5 credits per semester or 15 credits per year to continue receiving Pell. That’s a departure from the way Pell works now: Grants are currently prorated, meaning full-time students are eligible for the maximum amount, $7,395, while students taking fewer credits get a lower Pell award but are not required to take a minimum number of credits.
How did the GOP in the House decide on these shifts? They claim that they looked at graduation rates and decided that the main reason that Pell Grant recipients may not graduate from college on time is that they take too long to complete their degrees. Assuming that this just bad judgment on students' part, the legislators understand themselves to be getting students off the couch and into more classes each term.
These people in power had little interest in solving any of the many reasons that students enroll part-time or limit the number of full-time credits they take.
- One in five students is the primary caregiver for at least one child.
- 49% of students are financially independent of parents.
- 40% of students work full-time.
- 41% of students experience food insecurity
- 48% of students experience housing insecurity
- 14% of students experience homelessness.
Essentially, with inadequate funding for Pell Grants, thousands of students are struggling to juggle child care, work, family emergencies, rising rents, and the urgent need to minimize student loan debt.
But in this bill, the GOP assumes that the problem instead is that students need stop sleeping in and sign up for more classes.
It's legislation designed for imaginary students, or perhaps just for the students that these legislators know themselves. The chair of the Education committee quoted in the IHE article explaining his "stick" approach to graduation rates graduated from a private Christian college in 1975, back when Pell Grants were at their maximum, covering 75% of the average costs of college.
