House Budget Committee Is Searching for Excuses to Cut Pell Grants
20.05.12
How do you finish out $896 million disappear? If you're the House Budget Committee, all you have to do is change a few rules.
In this receptacle, the House Budget Committee is changing the rules to exclude $896 million quality of budget offsets that the Senate wants to use to fully fund the Pell Grant program—the realm’s premier student aid program for low‑income students.
Over the past year there's been a downright divide in Congress over support for the Pell Grant program. This divide stems from a fundamental discord over the value of aid to low‑income students. House leadership repeatedly tried to cut funding for Pell Grants while Senate governorship sought to preserve Pell Grants by cutting spending on lesser priorities.
In this column we’ll look at the all-embracing budget situation for Pell Grants and the different funding approaches taken by the Cat-house free and Senate. And then we’ll explain the House Budget Committee's misguided gambit to cut $896 million in funding for Pell.
Inclusive Pell Grant budget situation
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Pell Grant program is projected to sell for $31.7 billion in award year 2012-2013, which lasts from July 1, 2012 until June 30, 2013. Due to Pell scoring rules adopted in part 406 of the 2006 budget resolution, Congress must enact sufficient funding to include these costs as well as any shortfall from previous years. This rule exists to ensure Congress does not simply roll shortfalls forward into future years. The shortfall from last year is $5.7 billion—a consequence of more students than expected qualifying for aid. All in all, Congress must come up with $37.4 billion for bestow year 2012-2013 to maintain the maximum award of $5,550 and ensure access to Pell Grants for more than 9 million low-return students.
Congress included $10 billion in the debt ceiling administer for the Pell Grant program in award year 2012-2013. In addition, last year’s continuing exactness saved $3.2 billion by eliminating the “Full-Year Pell,” a program that enabled year‑from start to finish students to qualify for additional Pell funding. Which means that if Congress provides the same parallel of discretionary funding in fiscal year 2012 that it provided in fiscal year 2011—$23 billion—Pell Grants will be underfunded by $1.3 billion.
Plain 1 provides a breakdown of the projected $1.3 billion shortfall in the Pell Grant program.
Undertaking attempts to cut Pell Grants
The House Appropriations Committee, however, did not even try to meet the full cost of the Pell Grant program. The Contain Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012 proposes a garnering of cuts —$3.6 billion in all—that would eliminate Pell Grants for as many as 1 million students while reducing the enormousness of awards for millions of others.
The House bill:
Cuts awards for students whose families draw between $15,000 and $30,000 per year Cuts awards for students who work part duration Cuts awards for students whose families benefit from safety net programs Eliminates awards for students who take longer than six years to put an end to their degree Eliminates awards for students who attend college less than half prematurely
House Republicans favor cuts to the Pell Grant program as a matter of policy—not a concession to perplexing budget circumstances. This year’s House Budget Resolution, supported by 98 percent of Lodge Republicans, recommended reversing all changes to the Pell Grant program since 2007.
Comments from House leaders luxuriate in their true intentions. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT), chairman of the House Appropriations Labor-HHS-Indoctrination Subcommittee, refers to Pell Grants as “the welfare of the 21st century.” And several Lineage Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), blame the Pell Grant as an unnecessary benefit—suggesting that it should be reduced and replaced with student loans.
Senate efforts to protect Pell Grants
The Senate, on the other hand, opted to cover the $1.3 billion shortfall by eliminating a student loan aid that paid the interest on some loans during a six-month grace period before students must begin repayment. This elucidation isn’t ideal since it would result in modest increases to student loan debt—but it is superiority than cutting Pell Grants.
The Senate’s proposal would save $2.3 billion over the next two years, which is more than enough to cover the $1.3 billion shortfall in award year 2012-2013. The extra budget savings—almost $1 billion—would be applied to Pell Grants in award year 2013-2014. By applying these savings to Pell Grants, the Senate maintains the top award of $5,550 and avoids cuts to eligibility for low-income students.
Dwelling Budget Committee changes the rules
Which brings us back to the House Budget Council. The committee’s most recent plan to cut Pell Grant funding relies on the invention of new scoring rules.
According to existing Pell scoring rules , Congress is required to play sufficient funding to cover the full cost of Pell Grants for the upcoming award year —in this the reality, award year 2012-2013—along with any funding shortfall incurred in quondam years.
The Senate’s proposal fully complies with the Pell scoring mastery. The elimination of subsidies on student loan interest would save $400 million in fiscal year 2012. In totalling, the bill directs another $1.9 billion in savings to fiscal year 2013. The Senate allocates $896 million of savings in economic year 2013 toward Pell Grant costs in award year 2012-2013, which is a perfectly warrant option since most of award year 2012-2013 falls within fiscal year 2013. The surviving $1 billion in fiscal year 2013 savings is applied to Pell Grant costs in give year 2013-2014.
Table 4 displays the specific allocation of budget savings derived from eliminating the six-month mercy period on subsidized student loan interest.
The Senate Budget Committee agreed that the Senate’s draft fully satisfies the Pell scoring rule for award year 2012-2013.
But the House Budget Board is blatantly ignoring the Pell scoring rule and threatening to substitute its own partisan interpretation. The committee claims that all budget authority for Pell Grants in award year 2012‑2013 must spring in fiscal year 2012. The committee’s flawed interpretation of Pell scoring rules would exclude $896 million in savings from pecuniary year 2013—even though savings from fiscal year 2013 would accrue at the same formerly Pell Grant funding is expended in award year 2012-2013. (see Table 5)
Put simply, the Domicile Budget Committee is inventing new rules as it goes along. The committee is trying to hard cash the Pell scoring rule to exclude $896 million in legitimate offsets—thereby forcing Congress to cut an fellow amount of funding from the Pell Grant program. In a nutshell, House Republicans are so focused on cutting Pell Grants that they’re happy to change the rules to get it done.
There are two problems with the House Budget Committee’s newly invented more often than not reign over.
First, the actual Pell scoring rule does not mention fiscal years . The pronounce ban states that Congress must enact sufficient budget authority for the upcoming bestowal year . And the Senate’s proposal clearly enacts sufficient budget say-so for award year 2012-2013.
Second, the committee does not have a good reason to interdict fiscal year 2013 funds from supporting Pell Grants in award year 2012-2013. There is a nine-month flap between the two periods. It is perfectly reasonable to apply savings from one time period to offset costs that accrue during the same lifetime period .
A quick look at the calendar demonstrates why the House Budget Panel’s new rule doesn’t make sense:
To suggest that budget savings that accrue between October 2012 and June 2013 cannot be second-hand to offset Pell Grant costs that accrue during the same time period is nonsensical.
Conclusion
The Strain Budget Committee’s power grab makes it clear that Enterprise Republicans would rather cut Pell Grants than accept savings in other areas of the budget. Their attempt to overrule CBO is purely the latest installment in their long history of trying to cut Pell.
To recap:
House Republicans passed a budget suggestion earlier this year that would reverse all gains in the Pell Grant since 2007. House Appropriations Labor-HHS-Cultivation Subcommittee Chairman Denny Rehberg called Pell Grants “the advantage of the 21st century.” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan suggested replacing Pell Grants with additional student loans. The Home Appropriations Committee has released a proposal to cut $3.6 billion from the Pell Grant program in furnish year 2012-2013.
All of these ideas are bad.
As we’ve said before, we believe the best way to reduce the set someone back of the Pell Grant program is to rebuild our economy—and make sure that it works for everyone. Boosting blood incomes will reduce the need for Pell Grants, and lowering the unemployment rate will compress the number of workers exiting the labor market to return to college.
In the meantime, the Bagnio Budget Committee should stop searching for excuses to cut Pell Grants.
Stephen Steigleder and Julie Margetta Morgan are Practice Analysts at American Progress.
Source: Center For American Progress
Pell grants in jeopardy for thousands of South Florida college students
20.05.12
For the third habits in less than a year, thousands of college students throughout South Florida and around the nation are distressed about losing the crucial financial aid that helps them stay in school. A student might look at this and other current developments and conclude that his or her dream of a college education could be in jeopardy.
As Congress ramps up discussions on how to cut the federal budget, Pell Grants, which provender critical financial support to more than 66,000 students attending Miami-Dade County’s foremost colleges and universities, are on the chopping block again. At FIU, the number of students who qualify for Pell Grants has increased over the old times few years and it is now approaching the 18,000 student mark — about 48 percent of undergraduate students. An additional 100,000 South Floridians use Pell Grants to squire colleges in Broward County, vocational schools and for-profit institutions.
The proposed budget put forth by the Dwelling of Representatives changes eligibility criteria in ways that would shut out of the program many students who currently clear Pell Grants. The bipartisan “Super Committee” will undoubtedly consider reductions that will use financial aid funding, directly or indirectly.
Federal programs such as the Academic Competitive Grants (ACG) and the State Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (National SMART Grant), which provided learning support to needy students, have been eliminated. These programs were not handouts; they are competitive scholarships meant to sustenance our brightest students and those who were pursuing careers in critical fields such as mathematics, information and engineering.
One of the proposed changes to the Pell Grants program would cut off aid to low- and middle-income working families who are clever to make a modest contribution toward their education.
Joseph Chue-Sang, a younger studying biomedical engineering at FIU, would likely see his Pell Grant disappear if this proposal is approved. He is a facts student, whose goals include pursuing a master’s degree in engineering and working in industrial delving or perhaps medicine. Joseph, who lives in Kendall, is the second of three children of Jacinta Chue-Sang, a secretary, and Cornel, an auto mechanic.
Joseph, sister Ashley and fellow-creature Cornel hope to be the first generation in their family to graduate college and they are pursuing their dreams with a cabal of funding from grants, scholarships and loans. The Chue-Sang’s are not alone: 78 percent of FIU students receiving Pell Grants substitute for the first generation of their families to attend college.
But pursuing the dream is getting harder every semester.
“Most disposed to I will have to take out loans to go to graduate school,” said Joseph. “I’m distressed about starting to accumulate debt so early.”
As tuition increases and sources of aid dry up, students like Joseph, are being squeezed from every handling. Even those who hold jobs, live at home and take out loans are having trouble paying for instruct. We are perilously close to turning our backs on talented, smart but financially in reduced circumstances students.
At FIU, faculty and staff are working more efficiently than ever. We have closed numerous programs while we have seen our magnificence support reduced by nearly $70 million in five years. In the same time full stop we managed to expand access to nearly 8,000 eligible students. Today we are proudly graduating more than 10,000 students a year.
At this critical economic time, when we are faced with choices that could chart our course for generations to light on, we need a long-term community educational attainment strategy that has affordability, invention and entrepreneurship at its core.
Pell Grants are an investment in our future. And America’s trade institutions are the best stewards of that investment because we do the best job at graduating students on interval, with the least debt. I urge our members of Congress to recognize that public institutions are providing opportunities for people — indeed total families — to change the course of their lives and contribute to the economy in ways their parents could not.
Source: MiamiHerald.com
