Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h9UEpoV03634; Thu, 30 Oct 2003 09:51:50 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2003 09:51:50 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <009e01c39ef5$38f14d20$8c28a5d1@air.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Mary Ann Corley" <macorley1@earthlink.net> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:1273] Pell grants funding formula under revision X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1106 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2253 Lines: 54 Opinion Column from the New York Times, October 29, 2003 Punishing the Pell Grant Program The maximum award of the federal Pell Grant program, created to encourage low- and middle-income students to attend college, covered more than 80 percent of public-college tuition a quarter-century ago but covers only about 40 percent today. Faced with high tuition, up to 25 percent of the low-income students with grades and scores that make them prime college material no longer even apply. Given the importance of a college education for upward mobility, Congress should be rushing to bring this important program up to strength. Instead, the federal Education Department is pushing a process that could cause 85,000 students to lose their Pell grants entirely and hundreds of thousands of others to receive less federal aid. The problem is a pending change in the federal formula that determines how much Pell aid families get, based on their incomes and the state taxes they pay. The formula was supposed to be revised yearly, but went untouched for a decade. Then suddenly, the Education Department revised the formula - but used state tax data from 2000, before the recession that has sent state taxes rising again. The Education Department blames the Treasury Department for the delay in updating the formula, saying the I.R.S. produced the needed data only recently. It seems more likely that the government simply backed off the revisions in the 1990's so as not to cause harm at a time when the Pell grants' value was eroding and tuition was rising sharply. Why is the Bush administration suddenly pushing for a revision based on outdated numbers at a time when the unemployed are having trouble keeping their children in school? The members of Congress who say the revisions should be put off until the government gathers more current tax data are right. But tinkering with the awards formula will do nothing for the tens of thousands of poor and working-class families who are being priced out of college. To deal with that problem, Congress will need to finance the Pell programs so the grants come closer to the real cost of higher education. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/29/opinion/29WED4.html?ex=1068449897&ei=1&en= b1a683c30d8cb6dc
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