WARWICK, R.I. — Rhode Island’s two Democratic U.S. senators said on Monday that they’re fighting to protect and expand the student financial aid program named for their predecessor Claiborne Pell.
Pell Grants have been a fixture of federal financial aid since the 1970s, helping millions of low-income students attend college annually. Claiborne Pell, a former Democratic senator who died in 2009, was a key champion.
Sen. Jack Reed said that as someone who worked with Pell in Congress he feels this is something that “makes so much sense.”
“It’s the manifestation of an attitude that when we help people go to school, we’re helping them but we’re helping ourselves too,” Reed said. “Their productivity and their contribution to the economy and our society will benefit all.”
Republican President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal 2018 would take $3.9 billion in surplus funding out of the Pell Grant program and reallocate it and does not support an ongoing inflation adjustment, Reed’s office says.
Reed and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse spoke with two dozen education officials about college affordability in Warwick at the Community College of Rhode Island, where about two-thirds of students are eligible for Pell Grants. Attendees told the senators they’re worried about the potential cuts.
Whitehouse reassured them, “The budget is disconcerting because it’s so extreme and ill-advised, but it’s not getting much traction.”
