The importance of Pell Grant funding and other forms of need-based financial aid – including aid programs at the state and institutional levels – are well established and fiercely debated by secondary and postsecondary educators, among others, who work with students and families on a daily basis. Hence the flurry of activity, advocacy and commentary here in Washington and around the country given an unfortunate recent proposal by Congress to cut Pell Grant spending.
Pell is indeed the financial lifeblood for millions of low-income students seeking postsecondary education, and is further relied upon by the thousands of institutions and the academic departments that confer a wide array of degrees and credentials.
This includes two- and four-year STEM departments struggling to remediate an ill-prepared student population for college-level math and science coursework. This is compounded by course sequences in STEM that often require more credits for graduation than other majors – circumstances that lead to a longer time to a degree and the subsequent need for a steady stream of financial aid for STEM students, in particular.
Just as troubling are the drastic cuts to higher education that states have made in light of their own budget deficits, most often resulting in cuts to financial aid that already poorly keeps pace with rising tuition. Practically every state in the nation has made cuts to higher education and financial aid, some more extreme than others, thus placing the financial burden of higher education on students and families alone – a scenario that necessarily restricts access and degree completion.
