Congress will vote in November to cut at least $9 billion or more from federal student aid programs, the largest cut in the program’s 40-year history.
The cuts mean 90,000 middle- and low-income students would no longer receive a Pell Grant and 1.3 million students would not receive as much as they previously did, according to the National Education Association (NEA). The cuts will affect all students in the form of Pell Grants or student loans.
Reg Weaver, president of NEA, believes Congress is “creating a cycle that will be felt for generations to come.”
“Without federal student aid, many middle- and low-income families will not be able to provide their children with higher education, making it harder to get a good-paying job, making it harder to send their own children off to college,” wrote Weaver in College Aid Cuts: Make Your Voice Heard, April 2005.
In the academic year 2004-05 almost $129 billion in student aid was distributed according to this year’s College Board data. That is almost $10 billion more than the previous year. “Undergraduates received 46 percent of their aid in the form of grants. Graduate students received 22 percent of their aid in the form of grants.”
States have already begun cutting financial aid, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. “Last year, 17 states spent less on financial aid than they had the previous year,” according to the Center.
In March 2003, Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne vetoed a bill that allowed for cuts in higher education.
“This year, further cuts will jeopardize the ability of our colleges and universities to provide a competitive and stable academic environment. It is not a viable option to help balance the budget,” said Kempthorne in his message.
As a private institution, BYU- Idaho does not receive Federal Aid, though students do. Andrea Hogan, a senior from Glendora, Calif., said it makes a world of difference.
“Without financial aid, I wouldn’t be able to go to college. There’s just no way I could pay for tuition and housing,” Hogan said. She receives some scholarship and has taken out student loans, but Pell Grants give Hogan much needed tuition money.
“If they make it harder to receive financial aid, students won’t be able to attend college,” Hogan said, “Even if a family makes $60,000 a year, it’s still very expensive to send kids to college, especially a big family.”
Rising tuition costs creates even more hurdles for college students. At four-year private nonprofit institutions, like BYU-I, tuition and fees average $1,190 more this year than last year, a 5.9 percent increase, according to www.collegeboard.com.
President Kim Clark says BYU-I can do better.
“[We] must lower the relative cost of education,” said President Clark in his inaugural response.
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