President Bush’s 2009 fiscal year budget, released Monday, stressed increased college affordability with an additional $18.9 billion in Pell Grants — a 116-percent increase from 2001.
The proposed Pell Grant increases pave the way for higher education legislation slated to be introduced on the House floor Thursday.
A revised version of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, signed by Bush in September 2007, aims to boost the affordibility of post-secondary education with several programs and provisions, according to early drafts of H.R. 4137.
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said the new budget and bill revisions would help ensure a high standard of affordable education, according to a press release by the Department of Education Monday.
“I am pleased the budget calls for increased funding for Pell Grants. … [This program is] essential to ensuring that our children not only have access to a rigorous education, but one suited for the global economy,” she said in the release. “I hope Congress acts to fund these important programs at the level requested by the President.”
The updated legislation would require the top five percent of institutions — in the public, private, for-profit, two-year and four-year sectors — that have the highest percentages of tuition increases to form “quality efficiency task forces” and publicly report the factors for their price increases.
By fall 2010, the legislation would publish lists of the institutions with the highest and lowest tuitions and fees, according to H.R. 4137. And it would give the federal government the power to cut funds if states decrease their post-secondary education budgets.
Some college lobbyists and college educators said they predict these funds could be used as a bargaining chip for students.
“They could hold your financial aid over you as well as grants,” the University’s Director of Professional Education Michael Maher said.
These lobbyists and professional educators, including Maher, draw comparision between the College Cost Reduction and Access Act and the No Child Left Behind legislation. “No Child Left Behind extends beyond K through 12,” he said. “Is there a multiple choice test for this? Is there some subjective way to look at higher education?”
And Maher said the NCLB Act already affects college students entering postsecondary institutions.
“We have some students in the [College of Education] who have to take the PRAXIS [teacher licensure and certification series] and some who won’t because of standardized testing,” he said. “No Child Left Behind hasn’t yet been reauthorized by Congress. … [It] has a lot of its own issues.”
And while NCLB has shortcomings, according to Maher, accountability at all levels of education will always exist.
“In terms of accountability, that’s not going to go away,” he said. “There’s always going to be some sort of testing. Using benchmarking, if you’re tracking students all along [is a better option].”
