College Money that Works

As with the rest of the budget he presented to Congress last month, President Bush’s proposal for higher education funding lacks details. What is known is that his budget would eliminate funding for some student loans and for programs that prepare low-income students for college. Programs such as Upward Bound, which helps at-risk students adjust to college, can likely be improved, but replacing them with a high school intervention program that hasn’t been designed yet, as the president proposes to do, won’t save money and, likely, won’t benefit students for a long time.

A line in the president’s budget, which eliminates nearly $313 million in funding for Upward Bound, says the program had limited overall results. However, data from the U.S. Department of Education counter this conclusion. In the spring of 2000, 13,100 students who were enrolled in Upward Bound graduated from high school. That fall, 92 percent of them enrolled in college.

The president’s budget also criticized the Talent Search program, which encourages disadvantaged students to finish high school and go to college, for not demonstrating results and cut its nearly $145 million in funding. The education department reported that in 1999, 85,000 students who participated in Talent Search graduated from high school and 73 percent of them enrolled in college in the fall. According to the department’s data, just 31 percent of low-income students in general enrolled in college.

According to data compiled by the Pell Institute, a higher-education research group, of the Upward Bound students who graduated from high school in spring 2000 and enrolled in college that fall, 41 percent have now received a degree or postsecondary certificate and another 20 percent are still in college. Of the 1999 Talent Search group, 41 percent have received a degree or certificate and 12 percent are still in college. Of the general low-income group, 16 percent have received a degree or certificate and 10 percent are still in college.

In Maine, 94 percent of students participating in Upward Bound and Talent Search enrolled in college in 2004. That compares to 66 percent of all Maine high school graduates who go on to college.

It is hard to understand how programs, specifically charged with helping students graduate from high school and prepare for and enroll in college, that triple college-bound rates and double graduation rates are not successful.

One bright spot is the president’s plan to increase the size of Pell Grants, financial aid awards available to the poorest college students. The president’s proposed budget would increase the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $4,550 over five years. Since the small increase is overdue a proposal from Maine Sen. Susan Collins to make the $500 increase all at once makes more sense.

Although the Pell Grant boost is positive, the president’s plan to fund it by eliminating the Perkins Loan program is a classic example of the government giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Without Perkins, students would be forced to pay higher interest rates to pay for college.

Eliminating funding for programs with proven results in order to fund a vague high school reform effort and taking money away from students who need it most is irresponsible and should be stopped by Congress.