JAIMIE FRANKLIN
Assistant News Editor
The Bush administration’s 2008 budget plan calls for a substantial increase in the need-based Pell grant, a proposal that will benefit low-income college students at Pepperdine and elsewhere.
The Pell grant is the federal government’s largest source of financial aid that does not need to be paid back after gradation, according to Janet Lockhart, director of financial assistance at Seaver College. Students qualify for the grant by completing the FAFSA and generally having an estimated family contribution (EFC) between $0 and $3,800 per year, based upon income, assets and other financial factors.
The Bush administration’s proposal would increase the maximum award amount by $550 to $4,600, the largest increase in more than three decades. Award amount is determined by the student’s EFC, cost of attendance, whether the student is full or part-time and whether the student attends college for a full year or less.
About 450 Pepperdine students received the grant this academic year. In conjunction with other grants and subsidized loans offered at Pepperdine, students may receive anywhere from $500 to an amount equal to full tuition.
“Without federal programs, most students would not have the resources to attend college,” Lockhart wrote in an e-mail. “Federal funds include grants, scholarships, loans, and work study funds for students that qualify.”
These federal funds incorporate the CAL grant, which is offered to California residents, the BYRD, FSEOG, AC and SMART grants provided by the federal government, as well as federally subsidized loans like the Stafford loan, in which the government pays interest while the student is attending school.
“As costs skyrocket, it becomes increasingly difficult for middle-class families to afford college,” Education Secretary Margaret Spelling said in a speech at North Carolina State University, Thursday, Feb. 1st. “And for low-income, mostly minority students, college is becoming virtually unattainable. States, institutions and the federal government—we all must increase need-based aid. The President’s call for a Pell grant increase will achieve this goal.”
Some Democrats disagree. Many have criticized what they see as a delayed response from Bush on student financial assistance and have submitted a bill in the Senate to increase the Pell to a maximum of $5,100.
“This welcome development shows how a Democratic Congress is changing the nation’s priorities,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. “For the past five years of Republican control, Congress failed to hold the President accountable for his broken promise to increase Pell grants.”
Questions have also been raised as to how the Pell increase will be paid. Although the House voted to reduce Stafford Loan interest rates by 50 percent recently, the 2008 budget plan eliminates the Perkins Loan altogether.
“We can’t be robbing Peter to pay Pell,” said Luke Swarthout, an advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s Higher Education Project, in an interview with the Washington Post Feb. 2nd. “But this is clearly a step in the right direction on college affordability.”
02-08-2007
