President George Bush, who recently released his budget plan for fiscal year 2004, said he is trying to make a college education more accessible and affordable by increasing students’ funding opportunities.

Bush provided a potential increase of $53.1 billion for the Department of Education, reaching the largest increase for any domestic agency in the budget.

According to the national Center for Education Statistics, college enrollments will continue increasing to record highs during the first decade of this century. The department has also said current enrollment is expected to increase 13 percent by the year 2012, for an approximate total of 17.7 million students.

With the number of students attending college climbing rapidly, Bush is attempting to make a college education more attainable through increasing financial aid.

Funding for loans, student aid and work-study programs reaches an approximate total of more than $62 billion in the 2004 request. This money would assist more than nine million post-secondary students at universities nationwide.

One aspect of this increase is Pell Grant funding, which is slated to rise $1.9 million to a total of $12.7 billion in order to aid nearly five million lower-income students.

This increase is the largest suggested in the area of higher education and would provide individual grants totaling $4,000 to students.

University of Wisconsin professor John F. Witte said the rise in Pell Grant funding is long overdue and a very good move. However, he also noted an unfortunate lag in Pell Grants over time. According to Witte, though the increase in actual dollars may be large in the request, it still may not raise the number up to where it should be.

However, Witte expressed concern with the students receiving these grants. He said low-income students need to be targeted for this funding because although it is intended for those with low incomes, students from medium- and higher-income families have increasingly been able to receive this aid.

“People can make good amounts of money and still receive Pell Grants,” Witte said.

In addition to the increase in Pell Grants, student aid rose more than $3 billion in requests, reaching a total of nearly $48 billion.

In light of diversity debates, a significant amount of money has been proposed in the section of institutions that primarily educate minority students. In particular, historically black, Hispanic and Native American colleges and universities are being targeted.

If Bush’s request is fulfilled, the International Education and Foreign Language Studies programs will receive $102.5 million in funds. IEFLS works to increase the knowledge of people nationwide in foreign languages as well as international studies.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks raised concern over the United States’ competence to deal with international relations, which in turn has led to this increase in funding for IEFLS. Witte says there is an increased need for American international expertise in world areas, economies and foreign languages.

“I am very happy about this increase [in funding] for higher education,” Witte said. “It’s obviously a good investment … we are investing in the future.”