Collins co-authors bill to bolster Pell Grant funding

WASHINGTON – Noting that rising college tuitions have eroded the value of federal Pell Grants, senators are trying to more than double the maximum award that low-income students can receive under the program each year.

A nonbinding resolution that Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin introduced Tuesday calls for the annual cap on Pell Grants to increase from $4,000 to $9,000 per student by 2010. Capitol Hill aides estimated that the plan would require the Pell Grant budget to eventually double to about $26 billion.

Collins said that in 2000, college students in Maine graduated with an average of between $15,000 and $17,000 in debt. “This has a tremendous impact on students’ willingness to go into underpaid but needed professions, such as teaching,” she said.

About 4.5 million low-income students nationwide receive Pell Grants each year.

In a letter sent Tuesday to all 100 senators, the Student Aid Alliance warned that the Pell Grant program is headed for “a period of stagnation” because more people are going to college and the sluggish economy is making it harder for families to pay tuition fees.

“If the maximum award is held constant, students cannot even manage to keep up with the cost of their books,” David Ward and David Warren, the alliance co-chairmen, wrote. “Making a commitment now to double the Pell Grant maximum award will send a positive message to students who are being challenged to meet higher standards in high school, and have begun to wonder if college could be a part of their future.”

Supporters of the funding hike acknowledged that it could be a tough sell in Congress because of burgeoning budget deficits and a looming war with Iraq. In addition, Congress has raised the maximum grant level by $1,000 over the past three years, the largest series of increases in the program’s history, and the Bush administration has said it opposes additional increases.

“Realistically it’s going to be very difficult, but that’s the goal,” said one congressional aide, who asked not to be named.

Last spring, 46 senators signed a letter to Senate appropriators advocating a hike in the Pell Grant cap to $4,500. The increase was not ratified, in part because Congress never approved the fiscal year 2003 spending bill that pays for the Pell Grant program.

But the timing this year could be good. Congress is preparing to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, and Feingold said the bill could prove an ideal vehicle for boosting Pell Grant funds. “We have made progress during the last four years in restoring some of the purchasing power of the Pell Grant program, but the job’s not done,” Feingold said.

Lawmakers said the nonbinding “sense of the Senate” resolution introduced Tuesday is the first step in a yearlong campaign to make Pell Grant funding a top congressional priority.

The effort is modeled on the strategy some lawmakers used in the 1990s to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health within a decade. After initially making a commitment, Congress followed through by repeatedly boosting NIH funding.

“The goal itself helps Congress stay focused toward achieving it, even if they don’t meet the strict deadline,” said Becky Timmons, director of government relations at the American Council on Education, a national association of colleges and universities. “If it’s widely embraced … it would give the program something of a competitive edge at a time when programs are going to be competing for scarce resources.”