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Recently the Education Trust, Campus Progress and a number of other groups joined hands for the “Save Pell Day”.  We all know that Pell is in trouble and so are the low income students in our country. There was a 45% reduction in the maximum grant and this reduction was passed earlier this year by the House. At least 1.5 million students lost the opportunity to be a part of the program due to this cut.

Pell is surprisingly an area that is targeted repeatedly for cuts in talks that deal with debt reduction. Next year’s proposal by representative Paul Ryan further reduces the grant considerably.
Is the Pell Grant gradually on its way out along with millions of deserving students?

Pell Grant is paid to students who qualify from the low income group. This grant is used by them for paying college expenses and tuition. As compared to the student loans, money obtained from Pell Grant need not be paid back. Between the years 2005 and 2006, the size of Pell increased by 150%.

One of the signature federal loan legislation pieces, the Pell Grant program is now 30 years old. This program resembles the medicare of social security in the field of education. House Republicans complained that Pell Grant is one of the major reasons for the sky rocketing higher education cost. They have been striving to bring about cuts in this grant for quite some time now.

This question was investigated by one reputable study and findings reveal that there is absolutely no relationship between the tuition costs and the Grant. Just a few years ago, Pell Grant covered three fourths the annual four-year public college cost. Today this grant covers only one-third of this cost. Increased college tuition trend is certainly not leading the Pell that is severely lagging behind today.

Through the stimulus that increase the size of Pell Grant, our President continues to claim with pride that the Pell has been strengthened with legislation. He firmly pats himself on his back for this although what he says is true technically speaking. As compared to what it was a year ago, there is no denying that the Pell program is much smaller. Its size has shrunk due to the many different changes made in it during the past year.

 Just like most of the actions initiated by the right wing politicians, the decision of Republicans to push for cuts in Pell grants is based more on less informed judgment on its effectiveness than on ideology. In support of the for-profit college industry, the GOP stands firm making it impossible to find any evidence of wrong doings.

It is indeed a worthwhile task identifying spending cuts during these tough times. However, it is completely unacceptable to target a program that invests on a small level to help low income students who will use the opportunity to complete their education and earn well enough to pay their taxes.