Final '96 Budget Pact Preserves Some Education Programs A final 1996 budget agreement hammered out by the White House and Congress provides for a Pell Grant increase and protects a number of high-priority programs for disadvantaged students.
The agreement ends. seven months of stalemate that required most federal education programs to operate with only temporary spending allotments. The lengthy debate also prompted two shutdowns of the U.S. Education Department (ED) and was in part responsible for delays in processing new student financial aid applications. Despite these hardships, most aid programs used by students emerged in the end with few of the major cuts originally envisioned last year.
The final agreement will increase the maximum Pell Grant by $130, to $2,470 next fall. The White House originally sought a maximum grant of $2,620 for 1996, though the new figure is midway between competing proposals in the Senate and House of Representatives. Lawmakers also paid for the grant increase through a prior surplus in the program, rather than allocating more funds for 1996.
Student groups expressed satisfaction with this result, however. "It's the first time we've seen a commitment to raising the maximum level for students," said Laura McClintock, legislative director for the United States Student Association (USSA).
Most other programs important to students of color and historically Black colleges and universities emerged from the process with funding freezes for 1996.
Federal TRIO programs, plus aid to HBCUs and HBCU graduate schools, will continue at 1995 levels under the final budget. Lawmakers had agreed to this recommendation several months ago, though ongoing partisan and ideological disputes on other ED funding issues left all programs with only interim funding until this final agreement was signed. The massive bill funds thousands of federal programs, and advocates and ED officials still were sorting through the 1,500-page document Black Issues went to press to determine the fate of some small programs.
