COLLEGE CUTS

With college costs rising and job growth slight, it is troubling that members of Congress want to cut financial aid for the neediest students. A provision in an appropriations bill for the Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services, now being debated in conference, could reduce federal Pell Grants by $270 million. The Senate rejected the reduction in student aid, but it remains in the House version of the bill.

To ensure that thousands of students don’t forgo higher education, the Senate language should be approved.

According to the College Board, tuition and fees at public higher education institutions have increased 40 percent in the last decade, while rising 33 percent at private schools. Last year’s jump of 12 percent at public institutions was the largest increase in 25 years.

The Congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance reports that by the end of this decade, rising costs will deter as many as 4.4 million college-qualified high-school graduates from enrolling in a four-year college, and 2 million will not go to college at all.

While colleges and universities have boosted their financial aid budgets, it has not kept pace with the rising costs. In 1975, Pell Grants could cover more than 80 percent of costs at a four-year public college. Today, such a grant covers only 42 percent of costs there and only 16 percent of costs at four-year private colleges. The result is that students are turning to loans and graduating further in debt.

The House version of the appropriations bill would worsen this situation. In Maine, where 85 percent of college students depend on need-based aid, the state’s allocation of federal financial aid dollars would drop from $15.8 million to $7.6 million. The University of Maine System would loose more than $6 million.

“When colleges are being forced to raise their tuition and fees by double digits, we cannot be turning around and cutting need-based student aid,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, who voted for the Senate amendment to restore the Pell Grant funding.

Also working to block the cuts is Sen. Susan Collins who co-sponsored a failed amendment to increase higher-education funding, including boosts for individual Pell Grants. Both senators signed a letter encouraging the conferees to restore the financial-aid funding.

It has been said repeatedly in recent years that education is the key to success, financial and otherwise, in Maine and across the country. Not making that key available to those who need it most dooms not only them, but all of us, to failure.