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There is deep concern on the quality of higher education across the nation due to the deficit cutting plan to the tune of two trillion dollars following the new national debt ceiling legislation presented by the Congress this summer. This comes when the higher education field is still trying to recover from the California 2009 budget cut impact.

There is concern among Smith community and academic community members that students who go back to school will be hugely disappointed with classrooms that are massively packed and crowded, the high tuition fee and limited access to resources.

A potential shut down of the government was recently averted by the Congress and President Obama with the new legislation after they wrangled for months over this issue. According to the new legislation, there will be budget cuts to the tune of trillion dollars in the coming decade even as the government raised the borrowing ceiling.

A major portion of budget cuts will be accounted for by defense spending. Apart from entitlement programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, another area that will be deeply affected by the cuts will be higher education programs.

Higher education will experience a mix of diminished and heightened funding. Pell Grants which is the federal grant given to students who require financial help for their first post baccalaureate or bachelor’s degree programs, will now receive $17 billion more for fiscal year 2012-13.

The implications of this rise in Pell Grants to the tune of $17 billion essentially mean that graduate students will benefit from Budget Control Act’s $22 billion. These students will not have to now pay a huge interest on their loans while in school. These changes will combine to greatly help reduce deficit by generating five billion dollars.

What students in California experienced in 2009 may actually be entirely different from the impact of the current proposals. There is an agreement between Roger Kaufman, economics professor at Smith and Mahnaz Mahdavi, his fellow professor that lower government spending in terms of diminished Pell Grants and other higher education supporting resources may hurt students and their families.

There are possibilities that student loans interest may be raised by the government. For example, Stafford loans that are offered to eligible student who wish to study in accredited higher education institutions.

Impact will especially be felt by students and faculty members who are receiving research support from government. New grant awards as well as existing support may be at stake and this will affect the research faculty. According to Mahdavi and Kaufman, a balanced government budget will be beneficial for students as well as faculty in the long run. They feel that interest rates will reduce if deficits are lowered.

David Belanger, Student Financial Services director, Smith community will face only a limited impact from these budget cuts. This however is worth consideration, he said. He opines that while this budget did not cause a large impact, tougher decisions will have to be taken by the Joint Congressional Committee end of the year. This could impact a lot more students.