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Washington, D.C. -- Nearly 90,000 students around the country will no longer qualify for Pell Grants and aid for more than a million students will shrink under new federal rules that went into effect two days before Christmas, as college students were on recess and many high school seniors and their families are awaiting college acceptance letters. Congressmen Rush Holt (D-New Jersey), along with his Education and Workforce Committee colleague Tim Bishop (D-New York), introduced legislation to restore opportunity to those students. The Holt-Bishop legislation would restore funding to students who will be deprived of much-needed federal assistance by the new rule.
“For thousands of American students, this federal rule change will make dreams of a college education just that – a dream,” said Holt, a former physics professor at Princeton University. “Education is the key to a brighter future, and denying our students this opportunity is unconscionable.”
“This new policy fails the test of providing opportunity to our students,” said Bishop, a former Provost at Southampton College who also served as the school’s Director of Financial Aid. “At a time when college costs are rising, it is outrageous that we would make it harder for students from working families.”
The updated rule, put into effect by President Bush on December 23rd, changes the way that families deduct their state and local taxes when calculating how much income they have available to pay for college. The change eliminates or reduces eligibility for college aid to more than one million students and families by making it appear that they have more money available to pay for tuition. This legislation, the “Restoring College Access for all Americans Act,” will reverse the cuts by restoring the previous eligibility standards for Pell Grant Scholarships.
Joining the effort as an original cosponsor is Congressman George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and a national leader in increasing access to higher education.
“With this bill, we are trying to prevent Republicans from raising the price of college. Tuition is already far too expensive for most families to afford, and Congress should be trying to make it more, not less, affordable,” Miller said.
The President’s reduction to the Pell program comes as the purchasing power of Pell Grants is declining. When the Pell Grant program was created in the mid-1970s’, it was designed to cover about 80 percent of college costs. Today, the $4,050 maximum Pell Grant covers just 42 percent of public college costs and only 17 percent of private college costs. This has been one factor in escalating student debt. The average four-year college graduate accumulates over $16,000 in debt, with monthly payments of almost $200.
According to recent Internal Revenue Service statistics, 90,000 college students will no longer qualify for the program, and aid will shrink by $100-$300 for an additional 1.3 million students. In total, this would result in a $300 million cut for students from low and middle-income families.
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