President George W. Bush proposed placing a time limit on students’ access to their Pell grants Tuesday. Under the plan, President Bush will use the newly available money to fund a new program that promotes mathematic and science education in low-income students.
The plan allocates an additional $5,000 in Pell-grant funding to 20,000 low-income students who already receive Pell-grant funding to study mathematics or the sciences in higher-education institutions.
President Bush proposed an eight-year time limit on the Pell-grant funding for a student who is enrolled at a four-year university, such as the University of Wisconsin, and a four-year cap on Pell-grant funding for students enrolled at community colleges.
In addition to partly funding the new $100 million plan to increase mathematics and science education for low-income students, President Bush said the time cap on Pell grants will encourage students to finish college sooner and eliminate the abuse of the program “where students extend their studies excessively” in a White House statement.
Jane Glickman, a public information specialist for the U.S. Department of Education, said the proposed program is an example of organizations working together to create the most cost-efficient and working budget. “[The Bush Administration] is always trying to find ways to maximize money’s worth to help most students,” Glickman said.
Although the president’s program provides funding for low-income students to learn mathematics and sciences, not all students who will be affected by the Pell-grant cap will be able to enroll in the program. Because the majority of Pell-grant recipients are not exclusively low-income students, the small window between low- and lower-middle-income families will be affected by the Pell-grant time limit but will not be eligible for the additional grants to study college mathematics or science.
Families that qualify as lower-middle income earn $40,000 to $60,000 annually, while families that earn $61,000 are classified as middle-income. Low-income families earn less than $40,000 a year.
Glickman said exactly how far the plan’s benefits extend “depends on how you define low-income.” Glickman said the majority of Pell-grant recipients earn around $50,000 annually, or lower-middle-income families.
Glickman also said even families that make between $40,000 and $50,000 do not receive the full Pell grant, and the only families who receive the maximum allowed Pell grants are those who “really need the money to go to college,” very-low-income or select low-income families.
Professor of Educational Administration Jacob O. Stampen said although the time limits on Pell-grant funding are reasonable, the new program will not drastically change financial-aid benefits.
“It’s just minor tinkering with [the financial-aid program] that’s sort of typical of the administration policies lately,” Stampen said. “A token here and a token there won’t amount to anything or have any measurable effects (on student aid).”
Stampen noted the $3.7 billion shortfall of Pell-grant funding, which varies on a yearly basis because the budget is formulated only on speculation of how many students will qualify for Pell grants for the fiscal year.
“The amount of money isn’t kept up with the costs, and that’s a big problem with student aid in general,” Stampen said. “I think the Pell [grant] hasn’t been fully funded, or close to it, ever. [Funding levels for the Pell grant] are now farther away than they were, and tuition keeps going up; there are some big problems there.”
Although Pell-grant levels have not increased from $4,050 for two years, Stampen said it is not likely the government will augment the grants anytime soon. “I don’t think it’s in the cards to raise it — [the government] doesn’t have the funding.”
Stampen said “tinkering” with the nation’s financial-aid funding with such programs as Bush’s recent plan is not enough to make higher education more accessible to low-income students.
“The key is to look for things [in the budget] that have leverage, to look for actions that do change things and get us closer to achieving [the goal of college accessibility to low-income students],” Stampen said. “We’re not doing that now.”
