Pell Grants Said to Face a Shortfall of $6 Billion

[central scrutinizer]

Source: NY Times

Battered by a worsening economy, college students are seeking federal financial aid in record numbers this year, leading Bush administration officials to warn Congress that the most important federal aid program, Pell Grants, may need up to $6 billion in additional taxpayer funds next year.

Driving the increased applications for federal aid, in part, have been nontraditional students returning to school to improve their job skills during the economic downturn, said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for public affairs at the American Council on Education, which represents colleges and universities.

Estimates by the Department of Education suggest that the new president will face an unusually burdensome financing shortfall or the fallout that would accompany trimming the nation’s leading college aid program.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/education/18grant.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

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Let's screw the poor, the money is needed to bailout the CEOS of financial services giants

[Eurobabe]

1. But that's okay because they all own a little piece of AIG now.

Right? :eyes:

[Raschel]

6. Look on the bright side

Who needs college? Todd Palin's running Alaska and he only has a high school education.

And John McCain's bottom of the class education didn't get him where he is today. You just need to marry into money.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. Pells have been harder to get each year...

...than the year before, and in constant dollar terms less generous. I have students who qualify for reduced-price student lunch as HS seniors who don't qualify for Pell grants as college freshmen.

Fewer and fewer students are qualifying for less and less, in other words.

And now this.

[Captiosus]

3. Indeed.

I went back to school after being laid off and the first year I got a Pell, no problem, even with being married.

This year, when doing the FAFSA, they now claim that my wife's child support for her teenage son is fair game for the "expected family contribution". Ignore the fact that it's child support for her son and not me... they took almost the entire amount from the child support box and put it right in the EFC column.

Sigh.

[halobeam]

11. Oh yeah... they changed that law to include child support as family income.

We found that out five months after it was in effect when we were receiving public assistance (no letter that the law changed, etc). They deemed us unqualified for public assistance because of this, and billed us over 5,000 to be paid back in 25.00/mth installments.

I could've appealed it, if I thought I should, which I did want to, but at the same time, they closed down the offices you had to go to for hearings for appeals which left 4 (FOUR) offices to appeal in the ENTIRE country. We live on Long Island and the closest place to have an appeals hearing was in Virginia. We couldn't afford to go.

Bastards. They DO "get it"... they just don't give a damn.

[Eurobabe]

12. I used my meager Pell grants every semester to buy my

books. Sometimes they chewed up the $250-300 I was awarded. Christ, back then I was working full time, going to school 6-9 cr. per semester, and not making over 20K as a single mom. Pell grants were life and death to me.

This is really sad.

The US needs a complete overhaul as far as education is concerned. In Germany for example, kids compete to get a spot in the Universities, BUT they only pay 500euros a semester. Imagine coming out of school with virtually no debt? My youngest just got her MA and has 75K to repay. That is just evil.

:eyes:

[undeterred]

24. There have been college students coming to the food pantry

where I volunteer. I don't know if its because their grants/loans haven't come in yet or if they just aren't getting enough money to cover expenses or can't find part time jobs. But that's never happened before. And the total number of people coming in is way up anyway.

[Indenturedebtor]

4. Why invest in our nation's future when you can give money to rich people?

Come on guys get with the program! Those rich people will take their personal 50 million dollar golden parachutes and invest it right here in good minimum wage jobs that those kids can work at for 30 years to save enough money for an education.

Pick yourselves up by your paper fast food hats FFS!

[Raschel]

7. It's kinda hard for the kids to take the bus to China

That out-sourcing can make things inconvenient!

[Indenturedebtor]

9. Well don't you worry. The Market has a solution for outsourcing too!

You see Raschel - we've thought of everything. When your economy goes completely to hell (I say "your" and not "our" because my personal economy is doing great. We took your pension and your children's future)... anyways when your economy goes to hell, wages will get so low here that China will happily outsource it's crappy polluting work to the USA! Then you can thank us for kicking off that whole globalization thing in the first place.

Did I mention 9/11?

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. Screw education, lets bail out Wall Street...nt

[camio]

8. I really hope Pell is safeguarded.

I completely rely on my Pell grants each semester. I qualify for the full amount allowed each semester - being under 21, both parents deceased, independent etc etc - and even with my circumstances it is a run around the mulberry bush to get this grant... I am investigated every semester to make sure I am not being fraudulent. I wouldn't be able to go to school without it... I'll be keeping an eye on this.

[Sabriel]

10. There goes upward mobility through education

The Pell was one of the best things that ever happened in education, and now need will outstrip funding.

How about we call off the Iraq thing for a month and put that pittance toward the Pell?

[tom_paine]

14. Bushies say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

You know they do, when they think no onme is listening...

[tom_paine]

13. This is a VERY bad timne to be young. The older a person is, the more they should be envied.

What does that say about the time and nation we are living in?

What it always says about totalitarian nations, even a newfangled kinder and gentler Inverted Totalitarianism, like in Amerika and Russia currently (China, too, but they are far more classical in their application of barbarity than their Sister nations of Russia and Amerika).

[intheflow]

19. Do not envy me.

I'm 44, so not too far along in years, but I am looking at having NO kind of retirement if Social Security goes bye-bye. I raised my son by myself, working mostly long-term temp secretary jobs and retail second jobs. No benefits offered in either that wouldn't swallow my whole check. I got my undergrad degree over the course of 15 years. I went to grad school when my son graduated high school and he went to college. I now owe $70K in student loans, but can only find a p/t, unbenefitted non-profit job at present and that big ol' loan is accruing interest faster than a spinning top. My car is a joke and I don't own a home (though at least I don't have a mortgage). Anyway, don't envy me. I'm looking at a future where I will essentially be an indentured servant to my student loans, perhaps for the next 40 years. :(

I think this time in history sucks equally for people of all ages.

[tom_paine]

22. I am sorry that you are going through hard times, and actually I am almost exactly

your age, so I think it is safe to say that I don't envy you.

But I pity a 20-year old. Whatever bad shit we live to see, environmentally, ecogocilically, sociologically, economically, or other, a 20-year-old will probably see two or three decades nore of it and worse.

Things are not getting better.

[CatholicEdHead]

15. That is only 7.5% of the funds for the AIG bailout

Chump Change.

:sarcasm:

[CountAllVotes]

16. and yet we bail out the investment banks

and their crook deals! :mad:

The powers that be don't give a damn about the citizens in this country!

USA USA USA ...

:kick:

[HopeHoops]

17. Gee, that's only about 20 days of wasted money in Iraq! NO PROBLEM, MAN!

[rcsl1998]

18. Bush Plan - Screw Whoever Follows Him

They have NO idea how F'd up things really are - Economic treason!

[Vinca]

20. Sorry, students. CEOs have jumped to the front of the line. nt

[xchrom]

21. recommend

[Doctor_J]

23. You don't need college to do the jobs * has created

"welcome to WalMart" can be learned in HS