The Bush administration proposed new initiatives to reform the federal Pell Grant system earlier this month, limiting the amount of time a college student can receive Pell grants in order to provide funding for a new program to provide financial aid for students studying math or science.
The proposals, which would limit students pursuing four-year degrees to eight years of Pell Grant funding and limit community college students pursuing two-year associate degrees to four years of funding, have provoked strong objections from community college officials nationwide who say the time constraints will hamper students who must hold jobs and tend to family issues while in school.
Georgetown administrators did not express concern about the new time limits on students pursuing four-year degrees.
“Limiting the number of years students could receive Pell does not affect Georgetown students,” said Patricia McWade, Dean of Student Financial Services. “I have never heard of anyone taking longer than six years to finish their Georgetown degree.”
University officials did express concern, however, over the plan to direct savings from the new time limits to a program to provide $5,000 grants for low-income math and science students only.
“The administration’s idea of creating special grants to low-income students who study math and science is laudable, but the proposal ignores many fields of study – including programs here at Georgetown such as nursing and languages like Arabic, Turkish, Korean and Chinese where serious shortages exist,” said Scott Fleming (SFS ’72), assistant to the president of the Office of Federal Relations.
“To select just math and science seems unduly restrictive and doesn’t respond to the whole range of critical national needs at this point in our history,” Fleming continued.
President Bush unveiled his new plan during an April 6 address at South Arkansas Community College, telling an audience of educators, administrators and students, “We want people to be prepared for the 21st century, that’s what we want. We want to keep raising that bar. We want to make sure nobody gets left behind, but at the same time, we want to provide proper incentives, so people can have hope in this country.”
A White House statement said that the new proposal, which would cost approximately $100 million, “strengthens and modernizes vocational and technical education, expands math and science education for all students, enables more low-income students to pursue degrees in math and science, and enables educators to determine whether high schools are graduating students with the skills they need to succeed.”
The plan was met with some skepticism, however, by many university officials who believe the new savings from Bush’s proposal to impose time limits on the need-based Pell grants, which are provided to college students regardless of their course of study, should be used to increase general Pell Grant funding, rather than create a new program aimed at students in only certain types of academic programs. The maximum Pell Grant amount has been set at $4,050 for the past two years.
“It’s a nice idea but does not include other areas of national need of interest to Georgetown,” said McWade. “The new money would be better spent to increase the maximum annual Pell grants, which has been at $4,050 for a while.”
Fleming also expressed concern with the plan.
“The maximum Pell Grant has been frozen at $4,050 for three years, further eroding the proportion of tuition and fees that the Pell Grant covers,” he said. “If cost saving changes are made in the Pell Grant program, students would best be served by putting those savings back into the program to increase the maximum grant.”
The White House’s proposal would create the Presidential ath and Science Scholars Fund, which would issue grants of up to $5,000 to approximately 20,000 low-income students. The program would be funded by $50 million in federal money saved through the new Pell time limits and $50 million raised from private organizations.
Democrats have criticized the president for not following up on his pledge in 2000 to raise the maximum Pell Grant to $5,100. The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee fired back, however, releasing statistics showing Pell Grant funding increasing at a rate of approximately 9 percent per year since 1999, reaching approximately $12 billion in fiscal year 2004.
As part of his recent campaign tour of college campuses, Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) has alleged Republican neglect of the financial aid issue, and has proposed $75 billion in new student aid funding for new state spending and a college tax credit.
The Bush campaign pointed out in response that the administration’s budget for fiscal year 2005 includes an increase of $856 million for the Pell Grant program and an increase of $4.2 billion for financial aid.
