Maximum Pell Grant would jump to $6,150 by 2011.
If a proposal from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education becomes a reality, in five years the government’s largest need-based student financial aid program could cover 70 percent of average state tuition, up from its current 44 percent.
The Pell Grant program accounts for about $13 billion a year in federal financial aid for higher education. The grants are awarded based on a financial need formula determined by the U.S. Congress. When the program was launched, in 1975, the awards covered 84 percent of an average college’s tuition. However, increases in college tuition costs, in conjunction with cuts in the program, have made Pell Grants less effective in helping low-income students and families.
Danette Gerald, senior higher-education research associate with the Education Trust, said Pell Grants are often the only aid available for students whose families cannot afford the cost of college.
In 2000, while campaigning for president, George W. Bush promised to increase the maximum Pell Grant award for college freshman to $5,100. Instead, in 2003, the Bush Administration revised the financial-aid eligibility formulas to eliminate Pell Grants for 84,000 students, although Congress rejected the measure in an amendment to the federal budget.
Since 2002, the maximum Pell Grant award has never exceeded $4,050 a year. MU students have typically received far less than that. During the 2005-06 academic year 3,252 MU undergraduates received a total of $8.1 million in Pell Grant awards. The average award — about $2,490 — covered less than 30 percent of tuition. Joe Camille, MU’s director of financial aid, said it falls to the universities themselves to make up the difference when need-based federal financial aid decreases.
The proposal by Spellings’ commission would increase the government’s annual Pell Grant obligations by $9 billion to $12 billion, depending on how much college enrollment increases. MU alone would receive an increase of about $3.4 million year, Camille said. The maximum grant would jump from $4,050 to $6,150 by 2011.
MU Provost Brian Foster said that, as the foundation for need-based financial aid, Pell Grants are important in ensuring equal access to higher education. “If they get raised so they provide more support, then students can work, and we can provide a little extra need-based aid and then they can pull things together,” Foster said.
Gerald said the Education Trust, a nonprofit research group established in 1990 by the American Association for Higher Education, is hopeful that the Spellings commission’s recommendations will be followed. “Even if it doesn’t happen,” she said, “the system has to get better.”
However, some lawmakers think the Bush administration’s failure to follow through with promised increases to the program do not bode well for Spellings’ recommendation. In a statement released two weeks ago, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said that Spellings should “convince the president to immediately increase the Pell Grant to $5,100, as he has promised to do repeatedly.”
Foster is optimistic, while remaining realistic. He said the fact that the proposal came as a result of one of the most important higher-education reform efforts in the past 30 years is a good sign. However, good intentions may not be enough.
“I think (the proposal) is promising because it comes from a high level task force. That’s helpful and helps its chances,” Foster said. “But the federal finances are pretty problematic these days, so it’s not whether people think it’s a good idea or not.”