Pell Grants are a form of federally funded financial aid aimed at helping low income students afford the cost of college. The grant sizes range from $555 to $5,550, and over 9 million students across the nation received grants in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Education website.
Under the new legislation, the grants can only be used for 12 semesters rather than 18 semesters, as in the past. Additionally, the highest annual income level under which a student would automatically receive the maximum grant amount drops from $30,000 to $23,000.
The University of California has been a major beneficiary of Pell Grant funding. In 2010, 40 percent of all UC undergraduates were eligible for Pell Grants and UC students received a total of $286 million. Nearly 80 percent of UC Pell Grant recipients graduated within six years, according to a letter sent by UC President Mark Yudof and UC Student Association President Claudia Magana to Congress members representing California.
The changes to the eligibility criteria come as spending on the program has nearly doubled in the past two years while the number of participating students has increased by nearly 3 million. The reforms to the program are expected to save more than $11 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Rich Williams, the higher education advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement that Congress is “blindsiding about 143,000 students next year.”
“At a time when student debt is at an all time high, Congress has failed to deliver on an agreement which helps struggling students pay for college and make it to graduation,” he said in the statement.
Magana said the changes would be especially problematic for UC undergraduates because “the UC keeps raising tuition.”
However, the finalized legislation avoids a number of previously considered restrictions that would have eliminated the grants for 1 million students, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education in an interview with The New York Times.
“We had to make some very painful cuts in this bill to meet our allocation,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, in a statement to The Huffington Post. “So I am very pleased we could minimize the damage in education, maintain the maximum Pell grant award and actually provide some increases for Head Start, Title I, special education and Promise Neighborhoods.”
Curan Mehra covers higher education.
Comment Policy
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.
How ironic that for the past couple of years the government has encouraged and all but sent out invitations for adults to return to school and continue their education. Now that there are several of us in that process seeking to better our employment opportunities and complete what we might have put on hold at an early time in life and we are being cut off at the knees. Get us in and then take it all away leaving us even greater indebted to the gov. and the powers that be. I am mid way in my BA and now because I began years ago and use a little of the funds that I am now punished and have no more funding resulting in even greater debt because it is the choice of loans or quiting what was encouraged to be the way to better my future. Hummm which way debt or failure? What a choice.
Your both full of crap! This is horrible, one of Obama’s campaign stratigies was encouraging people to go back to school. I was one who embraced the idea and now, due to this BS bill, I have over 30k in debt, only two semester left of pell and no way to pay for the remaining year. Now my worries are how am I going to afford the debt I have aquired and make enough to barely scrape by. I am absolutely digusted with this, what a bunch of CRAP. Obama is a JOKE, a hypocrite, and needs to finish his term and go back to where he came from. This bill needs VETOED! This is doing more harm to America and increasing the debt defecete of America. How many students do you think fell for his lines and will have no choice but to default on loans? How is this going to help the American Citizens? ITS NOT!! Its yet another way to oppress but what does this Harvard President care? I am sure he got his full 18 semesters. We as citizens need to stop focusing on political parties and OPEN OUR EYES to what is really going on. I also have to wonder why this wasn’t better publicized? I am not the only student in shock, there are several across the globe, and I can guarantee that I am not finished with my protest of this bill.
I think that this is pretty idiotic to those of us that finally have our lives in perspective and lack 2 semesters more in school to finish after this one is completed. Oh Well to an already punished nation and that I as well as others will not be able to complete my goal because of the stupidity of stupid and foolish persons.
After all, SOMEBODY has to pay for the $700 billion giveaway-to-the-super-rich program…AND the trillion dollar wars in the Middle-East…AND the half-a-trillion dollar Bush giveaway to Big Pharma from Part D…and Bush’s $1.5 trillion dollar bailout to Big Money in 2008.
Like how our government spends money? Then y’all be sure to vote Republican.
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist” – Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey), Usual Suspects (1995)
Maybe u haven’t heard but Barack the Clown owns the economy. He said so.
Lefties need to get a grip
how many students at UC actually got Pell Grants, and how did the Daily Cal leave that detail out and still pass this shit off as decent reporting?
But yet we still have money to award scholarships to illegal aliens, right?
Get a clue, students. The Democrats don’t care about you, as long as you’re stupid and gullible enough to vote for them. All they care about anymore is importing more illegals and figuring out how to get them to vote, legally or otherwise.
Honestly, this does nothing for any student who is at least somewhat intelligent. There is absolutely no need to be in college longer than 12 semesters (honestly, more like 9 or 10 semesters). These grants were wasting money on indecisive students who didn’t take their first few years of college seriously.
This cut still affects students who graduate in 8 semesters.
Have ever heard of academic bullying or changing prerequisites to extend a student enrollment? Sad thing about this law is that it does not recognize administrative abuse. I had five classes to graduate but my advisor would not allow me to register because of a prerequisite change, and he had knowledge of my financial aid situation. I contacted my school financial aid office and they would not state how many semester I had left to receive aid. I would later find out it was my last semester. Education is a joke. Once you declare your major you should be required to meet those requirements at that time. As a college has the right to amend there curriculum at will. So you can get financial aid assistance for 12 semester but if the program is changed you are still required to meet the new curriculum guidelines to graduate. I am angry because I planned to graduate in Fall of 2012-2013 and take my five classes. By the way; once you have exceeded the cap you can no longer qualify for a student loan.
Stan: I respect your view but at the same time how do you know what the Democratic party have in store. Republican’s are the one’s that are sending us to war in order to die and the democrats are the ones that have to go into office and clean up the mess of the last person that was there. You are worried about the wrong thing about letting illegals in the country. Wake up they are here and they might be here to stay once certain bills are passed. Republican’s are just as much to blame for the cut in student aid as the democrats are. What does illegal aliens have to do with that?
Dems stick it to the kiddies
where does it say that? oh right, it doesn’t.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/96613/republican-job-training-pell-grant-cuts-workforce-skill-cantor
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/174253-house-conservatives-angry-over-pell-grant-funding-in-boehner-debt-bill
oops!
but being wrong all the time hasn’t stopped you before.
“President Barack Obama signed a legislative compromise that tightens eligibility requirements for Pell Grant recipients ”
Your Clownboy prez should have vetoed.
You Fail otra vez dip sheet.
Copy/Paste from my comment above:
Honestly, this does nothing for any student who is at least somewhat intelligent. There is absolutely no need to be in college longer than 12 semesters (honestly, more like 9 or 10 semesters). These grants were wasting money on indecisive students who didn’t take their first few years of college seriously.
The Libs love to hand out money to keep their sheeple in line.
Wait what?