Students could lose Pell Grant money

The U.S. Senate has passed legislation to safeguard the way the Federal Government determines eligibility for Pell Grants, which help finance the college educations of the nation's neediest students. The bill now awaits a conference committee to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions.

An amendment to an appropriations bill passed 51-44 last Wednesday. It strikes down regulations set forth on May 30 by the Department of Education that would have changed the eligibility formula and reduced the number of students who could receive Pell Grants.

But since the House of Representatives did not address the issue in its separate version of the appropriations bill, the Senate's changes will now go before a conference committee, where discrepancies between House and Senate bills are resolved. The final bill will be voted on in October.

If the committee rejects the changes and the new regulations are adopted, the federal government would begin using a formula that lowers the amount families can deduct in state and local taxes, thus increasing their discretionary income on paper.

The Department of Education estimated that 84,000 students nationwide could lose Pell Grant money under the new formula, saving the Federal Government $270 million a year.

The amendment passed in the Senate last week was penned by Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J. According to Darius Goore, a spokesman for the Senator, total aid shrinkage would be much larger, since other non-governmental aid institutions use the same formula to determine aid.

"A lot of kids have indicated that they won't be able to finish college if that aid gets cut," Goore said. "If you think about 80,000 kids who don't get Pell Grants, where are those people going to go? They're going to get added to the unemployment rolls."

About ten percent of Tufts students receive a Pell Grant, which account for three percent of total aid money. The maximum award is $4,050 per student, and the amount depends on the cost of the institution, full- or part-time status, and the number of semesters the student plans to attend.

"We're not expecting to see any major changes up or down in the number of grants they receive," said Director of Financial Aid Patricia Reilly. "It would not impact diversity in any way."

The change would likely have a greater effect on students attending less expensive public universities and community colleges. At the University of Massachusetts -- Boston, the maximum award covers more than half of annual tuition and fees. "We used to get greater than 50 percent in grants from federal aid, and now it's greater than 50 percent in loans," Judy Keyes, UMASS Boston's Director of Financial services, said.

Many schools with substantial resources, such as Harvard, plan to make up for any reduction in federal funds.

Thomas Mortensen, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute, said that more and more students are taking on debt to pay for their education. Students are also likely to make up the difference by taking on more hours at work, he noted. "One thing we observed in the '90s that bothers me a great deal was rising numbers of students working full time. That's a recipe for disaster."

"When Bush was campaigning, he had all sorts of great ideas about increasing the grant, but now all [he seems] to be able to do is freeze it," Mortenson said. "We're stuck with a frozen grant while college costs are rising."