Skip to main content

House Republicans appear lukewarm on doubling Pell

Image: 

Though Democratic lawmakers and higher education advocates have been pushing for Congress to double the maximum Pell Grant in recent months, Republicans on the House Education and Labor Committee didn’t seem as enthusiastic about the idea during a subcommittee hearing on the program held Thursday.

Most members of the GOP agreed that Pell Grants -- which provide need-based aid that doesn’t need to be repaid to low- and moderate-income students pursuing two- or four-year postsecondary degrees -- are a necessary part of the federal student aid system. And though the grant doesn’t cover as much of the cost of college as it used to, Republicans were skeptical that doubling the award, as Democrats have proposed, would help make postsecondary education more affordable.

“Additional dollars allocated to poor students will wind up captured by these institutions,” said Representative Greg Murphy, a North Carolina Republican and ranking member of the Higher Education and Workforce Investment subcommittee. “Congress wanted to subsidize students but wound up subsidizing institutions. Throwing more money at them is literally the opposite of what we should be doing.”

Murphy referenced the Bennett hypothesis -- named for President Reagan’s secretary of education William Bennett -- that suggests increasing financial aid leads to higher tuition costs, though research on whether that’s true has been inconclusive. Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, testified that when Pell Grant and student loan access expanded during the Great Recession, tuition at four-year public universities increased.

“Simply increasing federal funding will not solve this issue,” Poliakoff said.

Poliakoff encouraged the committee to look carefully at any proposed policy that doesn’t examine how colleges are spending federal funding. Representative Diana Harshbarger, a Republican from Tennessee, didn’t explicitly state whether she supported or opposed doubling the Pell Grant but said that some sort of accountability measure for colleges and universities needs to be put into place.

“If I was a business owner, and I had some type of money coming from the federal government, and I knew it was coming and that they’re going to give me more, do you think I would lower the price?” Harshbarger said. “More than likely not. As far as I’m concerned, there needs to be accountability.”

But for some members of the committee, that accountability shouldn’t just be for institutions but for students as well. Representative Julia Letlow, a Republican from Louisiana, said while serving as a college administrator she saw students using federal financial aid for non-school-related expenses instead of only on tuition, room and board, and textbooks.

“There should be better oversight on how these funds are spent,” Letlow said. “While I’m glad we’re discussing how Pell Grants can benefit our students, I have reservations about the policy idea of doubling the maximum Pell Grant award and expanding semester eligibility for another six semesters, especially when I’ve seen firsthand misuse of financial aid funds.”

Committee chair Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Virginia, recognized that Congress must address the root causes behind the barriers to higher education, naming state disinvestment in higher education as one. Still, he championed the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act of 2021 -- which he introduced in June with Representative Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin -- as one step Congress could take to bolster resources for students by doubling the Pell Grant and extending eligibility for it to undocumented students.

"Over the years, the purchasing power of Pell Grants has dramatically declined, covering the smallest share of college costs in four decades," Scott said. "By passing this long-standing higher education priority, we would not only boost Pell Grant awards but also expand eligibility for these critical resources."

Though he acknowledged he wouldn’t have been able to attend college without a Pell Grant, Representative Bob Good, a Republican from Virginia, disagreed that doubling the award would be the right move.

“We continue to see the same Democrat playbook -- throw more money at a problem and hope that’ll fix it,” Good said.

Image Source: 
iStock/Getty Images
Is this diversity newsletter?: 
Newsletter Order: 
0
Disable left side advertisement?: 
Is this Career Advice newsletter?: 
Magazine treatment: 
Display Promo Box: 
Live Updates: 
liveupdates0
Most Popular: 
3
Ad slot: 
8
In-Article related stories: 
12


Udimi - Buy Solo Ads from Inside Higher Ed https://ift.tt/378IId3
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Author discusses book on grad school

Graduate school is a great mystery to students, and to some faculty members, says Jessica McCrory Calarco, the author of A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Princeton University Press). Calarco is an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University. She believes many faculty members (as well as graduate students, of course) will benefit from her book. She responded to questions via email. Q: How did you get the idea to write this book? Why did the issue speak to you? A: This book started as a tweet . Or, rather, as a series of tweets about the hidden curriculum of higher ed. Ph.D. student Kristen K. Smith had tweeted about the need to better educate undergrads about grad school opportunities, and it made me think about how opportunities in academe are often hidden from grad students, as well. Reflecting on my own experiences in grad school, I thought about the many times I'd found myself embarrassed because of what I didn't know -- the ...

Bad Education: A Movie Review

"It's not having what you want," quips Roslyn Assistant Superintendent Pam Gluckin in her Long Island accent, "it's wanting what you got." And what educators got from HBO's Bad Education was a harrowing detail of a pair of school administrators gone rogue with the school district's treasury, sacking $11.2 million before they were caught... by [...] from The Educators Room https://ift.tt/3d5LaSu via IFTTT

Tips and Strategies for Remote Learning (March 2020)

For the past four weeks, starting two weeks before our Spring Break last week, teachers, administrators and staff at our school have been preparing for “remote school” for students as a result of the coronavirus / COVID-19 crisis. On March 19, 2020, our Head of School sent out a letter to our parents including information about our remote learning plans and FAQs for parents . If your school is currently preparing for remote learning ( as all Oklahoma public school districts now appear to be , pending tomorrow’s state school board meeting vote) I encourage you to review these publicly shared documents and information. As our school’s “Technology Integration and Innovation Specialist” this year, I’ve been building an instructional site for our teachers to support remote learning, on support.casady.org , which is openly licensed CC-BY . This collaborative effort with many other teachers and members of our school staff has provided a good opportunity to curate as well as present instruc...