Bush, Congress support raising Pell grants

Ilyse Kramer Staff Writer

On Jan. 29, House and Senate Democrats agreed on a spending bill that will provide the maximum federal grant for middle-to-low-income students to attend college. Congress will raise Federal Pell Grants from $4,050 to $4,310. Unlike student loans, these grants do not need to be repaid.

The following day, President Bush released his 2008 budget proposal, which called for Pell Grants to be raised 14 percent, or $550, per year. This plan also includes a 33 percent increase in the maximum award, raising it from $1,350 to $5,400.

Budget estimates from last year state that each $100 increase in the maximum Pell Grant cost taxpayers $380 million. According to this equation, the $550 increase would then cost more than $2 billion.

Shortly after the announcement, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings spoke in favor of the bill, claiming, “This is real money that will help more low-income students achieve the dream of a college education.”

Vassar College President Catharine Bond Hill, however, believes that the bill’s impact on Vassar students and families will be limited. “It gives us a little more resources,” she said. “I’d like to see us increase our own resources for financial aid, to allow us to continue our push to recruit the students we want, from as strong and diverse a pool as possible.”

Director of Financial Aid Michael Fraher echoed Hill’s sentiments, explaining, “It is only a $260 increase in the maximum award, so it certainly is not a windfall to individual recipients.”

Fraher does not believe that the bill will have a great influence on Vassar’s own approach to financial aid. “The increase is too small to have an appreciable impact on our financial aid program,” he said. “Nevertheless, I’ve learned to be grateful for any increase in government student financial aid that helps us continue to make a Vassar education affordable.”

Both Hill and Fraher acknowledged that the bill contains a number of helpful elements. “I am pleased that there is an increase,” said Fraher, “although it is woefully inadequate considering inflationary increases since 1976, the first year in which undergraduates were eligible to receive a grant. The maximum grant in 1976 was $1,400.”

President Hill commented that the bill “will increase grant aid from the federal government to low-income students.” Because Vassar meets full need, she continued, the actual value of the College’s financial aid packages will not change.

However, Hill pointed out the the effects of the bill could still be felt at Vassar. “Since the Federal government will be meeting a bit more of that need through increased Pell grants,” she said, “if we spend the same amount on grant aid from our own resources, we will have more financial aid available in the aggregate.”

Hill concluded that “this is a step in the right direction. They still haven’t kept up with inflation since they were created, but this is at least an increase.”