A resolution passed in the US House of Representatives that will make substantial cuts to the Federal Pell Grant Program — a program 9.4 million college students rely on to help them pay for their education.
The bill, H.R.1, will cut the maximum award granted to students to $4,705 from $5,550. This amounts to an $845 cut to students receiving the maximum award. The bill will need to make its way through the Senate before becoming law.
The average Pell Grant will drop by $785, according to higher education advocate Rich Williams. He believes that hundreds of thousands of students will lose access to the grants entirely.
“Due to the budget crisis, states have been slashing financial aid expenditures and it is causing the price of tuition to go up,” Williams said. “It is important that folks know the importance of college aid, because we are needing to make up for a shortage of 3 million college students by 2018. We are not going to get there if we keep cutting aid.
“All of this is critical if we want to continue to have a strong work force as the economy recovers.”
Chelsea Adams, a business freshman who pays out-of-state tuition, believes that the resolution will directly affect her ability to stay at UH.
“I am out of state. I need financial aid to stay here, and if I can’t get it I will have to go back home,” Adams said. “This bill will really hurt a lot of people.”
Adams believes that if the bill is passed in the Senate it will make it difficult for freshmen enrolling in universities for the first time, and that many will have to decide not to go to college.
Tessa Long, a double-major Chinese psychology freshman, said the bill would not immediately affect her ability to stay in college, but that it will eventually affect everyone in the long run.
“I’m pretty sure there is nothing that can be done about it,” Long said. “Education is always the one that gets the boot first.”
The federal government should view college as an investment, and students who require financial aid will be able to eventually pay back the federal government through taxes after graduation, said engineering junior Daniel Camacho.
“The bill is going to make it hard for people to go to college,” Camacho said. “It’s not going to be a good situation.
“You have to cut down programs that make sense. I don’t think cutting education makes sense.”
I thought education was supposed to be a priority. The federal government expects states to improve their schools, yet many of the children they teach will not be prepared for school without access to head start? I thought we wanted more college educated citizens not less, so why are they cutting funding for college? What are they thinking or more accurately are they thinking? Surely, there are other places the cuts can be made.
With that happening, I don't think I can afford to live on campus. The Pell Grants really help cover my education costs so I only need to worry about living expenses. Sorry to say, but living on campus isn't exactly cheap when I could just commute from home and not have to pay a required meal plan that I don't use much. The expenses of a car aren't so expensive when you don't have one, and can rely on paying favors/gas to friends or using Metro. I'd love to live on campus again next semester, but I guess it's not going to happen.