Bush Flip-Flops On Increasing Pell Grants

[JABBS]

President Bush's fiscal year 2007 budget freezes Pell Grants for the fourth consecutive year at $4,050.

That's unfortunate for needy college students, especially as the cost of higher education continues to skyrocket. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education estimates that between 2001 and 2010, 4.4 million low- and moderate-income academically-qualified students will forego college because of cost.

It should be noted that Bush has repeatedly said he wants to increase the size of Pell Grants. But he failed to deliver on even the marginal $100 per year increase he spoke of.

So once again, some children will be left behind.

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This item first appeared at JABBS.

[MadMaddie]

1. So he lied to the college girl who asked him....

about the cuts...Remember he said the program was being modified!!

:wtf:

[Debi]

2. Cut - Frozen - those are two different things

being president is hard werk, maybe he should have said 'reformed' :shrug:

[zbdent]

3. It's not a flip-flop - its a

BROKEN PROMISE . . .

Remember, he said "A promise made is a promise kept!"

Also, he (and the GOP) said something along the lines of "rejecting a tax cut is a tax increase" - essentially saying that the expected increase in a grant being negated is a "cost increase" on the student . . .

[Selatius]

4. It's not like I ever got much of a pell grant anyway. I'm in college, and

most of my money for school was in the form of Stafford loans with interest. Pell Grants wouldn't even cover the cost of my fucking books per semester. I'm going to spend several years or even several decades trying to pay off the debt.

[JABBS]

5. $4,050

would pay for a large number of books.

Point is, the maximum size of a Pell Grant should keep pace with the inflated cost of higher education. Bush wanted to be an education president. LOL.

[Selatius]

6. My pell grant is 500. NOT 4,050. n/t

[JABBS]

7. yeah, but the maximum is $4,050

your pell grant might not have paid for many books. other pell grants can help out a lot. and regardless, Bush failed to follow through on his promise to increase the pell grants size.

[lakeguy]

8. how'd you get only $400?

i was dependant on my parents (who were making a combined 100k) about 5 years ago and still got $2000. took care of one quarter for me, including books.

[Selatius]

9. My mother, single parent, 35,000 income = 500 semester Pell

500 will barely cover books. Everything else is student loans with interest.

Next year, I will file as an independent.

[eppur_se_muova]

10. As long as your parents list you as a dependent, you'll never get much.

The PELL grants really only help those students who are at the very bottom of the economic ladder -- everyone better off than that has to pay those big fees to the lenders. And the cutoff keeps creeping lower.

[bobbieinok]

11. a $35,000 family income can pay for college????????

I don't understand

[kayice]

12. It means you have a lot of debt when you get out of college.

[Selatius]

17. Yes, I have roughly 20K worth of debt when I finish.

With interest. Gotta love how we saddle our kids up with books, pencils, and bankers' due notices.

[phusion]

16. how the hell did you manage that?

I was forced until I was 24 to file as dependent on my parents even though I was living on my own and paying my own way. The only aid I ever qualified for was student loans. I did not become eligible for work study until I turned 24 because I could finally file FAFSA as independent. Thing is, by 24, most "traditional" college students have graduated!!

It's a total BS system...I wish it was like the UK where all UK citizens can attend college for FREE.

[Selatius]

18. Oh please, 500 a semester is a pittance.

The only reason I can figure why I got it at all was because my mother was the only one who raised me, and she already had to take out student loans to pay my sister through college.

[jbnow]

19. Did you work

at a job besides work study? We found out the hard way that 70% of what a student earns and 35% of what they save is expected to be their contribution the next year. (So if you worked and saved all your money you'd owe more then you earned/saved. If you spent it all on needs, too bad. 70% of spent money is your portion) The students income or earning screws up financial aid.

I had about the same income as your mom. My son applied and went to a smaller state university thinking it would be cheaper, the school itself offered nothing though, they didn't offer work study, they didn't offer the lower interest loans. He had other scholarships and a wee Pell ($400?) besides my help and loans.

He decided if he had to get loans he might as well transfer to U of M (Michigan). To our surprise they gave him thousands in grants, work study, low interest loans. I didn't have to give him money anymore and heck, gained snob appeal.

I found out that is how it goes. Both schools assess your needs the same way but the big universities have more money and more rich students and meet the difference between cost and your portion. At the smaller one there were needier students that got their pool of money first, so they note you need the same $XXX but don't offer it.

So my tips to lower/middle income...don't have the kid work in the tax year before college and go to a big, rich university.

Who knew? I had gone to high school's meeting for parents about financial aid and they never mentioned that . I called them once I learned it and suggested they started telling parents.

[phusion]

22. no, not you :)

I was replying to lakeguy who got $2,000 while being a dep. on his parents.

$500 is a pittance...heh!

[niceypoo]

20. Pell grants can be used to pay off some of the loan

[democrank]

13. The amount of college loan debts that

our kids are saddled with when they graduate is frightening. There is no way around it for middle and lower income families. They need all the help they can get.

[AndyA]

14. But in his SOTU, Bush said he wanted students to focus on math and science

I guess he expects them to also foot 100% of the bill for it, too.

Let's not help them get there, let's make it hard for them, then chastise and condemn them when they drop out.

What did America do to deserve such a horrible President?

[Wapsie B]

15. Didn't you get the memo?

It's those Demoncrats who flip-flop and waffle. The repugs after thoughtful and deeply intellectual consideration have a different perspective on the issue at hand. :sarcasm:

[Vinca]

21. Bush is a sociopath (as well as a generally evil person).

He'll chop away at the funds for education, lie to a college student on national television and then tout math and science in his lousy state-of-the-union speech. And all the while he'll have that smarmy smirk on his puss.