Federal funding for Pell Grants — the most substantial financial aid program for college students — will remain intact through March 4 under a measure passed by Congress Tuesday night, staying worries among college administrators that a stopgap financing bill would expire.
The measure increases federal funding for 2011 by $1.16 billion and maintains the maximum Pell Grant money awarded at the 2010 level, according to a U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations press release.
The continuation of Pell Grant awards at current levels resolves a predicted $5.7 billion shortfall in aid and preserves the $5,550 maximum award for the 2011-2012 academic year. The forecasted gap was primarily due to an increase of 1 million in the number of applicants for the grants during the recent recession.
Pell Grants are a form of federal financial aid available to students from low- and middle-income families. Eligibility is influenced by expected family contribution, tuition for the secondary institution, enrollment status and duration of attendance.
The inclusion of sustained Pell Grant funding in the continuing resolution was a priority for the White House and colleges and universities nationwide, including Georgetown.
“I think its inclusion is a result both of the administration’s insistence that this funding be included to avoid undercutting this important program that is critical to so many students’ educations around the nation and to strong advocacy on the part of work within the higher education community in backing up that commitment,” said Scott Fleming, associate vice president for federal relations. “Certainly, Georgetown made very clear to many members of Congress how very important this is to the nation and on our campuses in particular.”
The proposed cuts in funding would have had a major effect on Georgetown. In the fall of 2009, 11.1 percent of its students received Pell Grants, according to the university’s Office of Planning and Institutional Research. In a June letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), President John J. DeGioia predicted that the university would lose $500,000 of its $3,471,781 in Pell Grant aid if the resolution did not pass.
Georgetown would have remained dedicated to its policies of need-blind admissions and meeting the full amount financial aid needed by its students, according to Fleming. The university would have had to search for alternative funding options, so the maintenance of Pell Grant funding is well-received by the Office of Federal Relations and the Office of Student Financial Services.
The House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee called the continuation of Pell Grant funding a “bailout” and attributes its necessity to Democratic “gimmicks” in its Fact Sheet about the continuing resolution released Monday. Fleming said the Republican rhetoric about the resolution measure is worrisome.
“I expect we will be very busy on this issue in the year ahead,” Fleming said.
When the continuing resolution expires on March 4, Republicans are expected to resume attempts to reduce government spending for the 2011 federal budget.