Pell Grants are among the higher education programs that may face budget cuts as national policymakers begin debate over the federal budget.
President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget, proposed Monday, would cut more than $1 trillion from the country’s deficit in the next decade, according to a White House news release.
The budget includes several sizable cuts in government spending, centered around Obama’s proposal to freeze federal, non-defense domestic spending for the next five years.
In terms of higher education, Obama’s budget would leave funding largely untouched, including the roughly $800 million his administration has added.
Obama’s proposal would preserve funding for Pell Grants at its current $5,500 level.
Still, the grants, which pay for about 9 million low-income students to attend college, would not go untouched by the budget. To pay for the grants, the administration proposes eliminating summer school grants and making students start paying interest on the loans while still in school.
Obama announced his budget at a Baltimore middle school, saying his budget “made the tough decision” to keep higher education largely unscathed despite other cuts.
“Even as we cut out things that we can afford to do without, we have a responsibility to invest in those areas that will have the biggest impact in our future — and that’s especially true when it comes to education,” Obama said.
Overall, the budget actually increases education funding by about $2 billion, or 4 percent.
Obama’s budget for this year never passed Congress, so legislators must constantly vote to refund the government through continuing resolutions.
Republicans in the House of Representatives, who took a majority in the body in November, recently unveiled their proposed new resolution last week. That proposal would decrease funding to the Pell Grant program, causing the maximum reward to drop by $845.
The United States Student Association, a student interest lobbying group, applauded Obama’s budget while criticizing the Republicans’ proposed resolution.
“We ultimately want to move beyond just keeping our proverbial heads above water and get to a point where higher education is the ship taking the United States to a place of economic and social strength,” USSA President Lindsay McCluskey said in a news release. “Political courage shouldn’t be required to fund higher education.”
 
—-
Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]