A running theme in compassionate conservative policy is to enable those in need. But the Bush administration's new financial aid rules are having the opposite effect. Many UB students will be left out in the cold by the new Pell Grant formula and the administration's failure to adequately inform students about the changes.
Last week the president proposed to increase the maximum award of the Pell Grant by $100 per year for five years. But the administration is also changing Pell Grant eligibility in the fall of 2005, which will alter the formula for the award size of students of certain tax levels. According to UB financial aid officials, these changes could reduce or eliminate the awards of over 89,000 students nationwide.
Not only could 100 to 150 UB students lose aid under Bush's proposal, the other 4,500 UB students would get Pell Grants squeezed by several growing problems in the college financial aid equation that the reforms do not address.
First, the proposed increases would not take effect until after the 2005-2006 school year, leaving SUNY students in the shadow of a potential $600 tuition increase next fall. The Pell Grant increase also would occur in $100 increments over five years, never keeping pace with rising tuition costs. Furthermore, this increase is well short of Bush's 2000 campaign promise to raise the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100.
President Bush also did not give clear answers about where the money would come from. He alluded to restructuring the federal loan program to find more money for Pell Grants, but according to UB financial aid officials, this idea hurts students even more because those who are on the fringe for Pell Grant awards or receive smaller grants are the same students who qualify for substantial federal loans.
Though the Pell Grant program has seen recent revisions, the maximum federal loan level has not risen in eight years. Those Pell recipients who will see reductions will have a difficult time making up the difference on their own without resorting to high-interest private loans.
While the changes are already an inconvenience to those who will lose some or all of their Pell Grant support, the problem becomes even messier because the situation has left so many students in the dark. According to Terri Mangione, UB's senior associate vice provost for student academic records and finances, the Department of Education missed a major notification deadline by several months when it approved its Pell Grant adjustments.
Mangione said a June 1, 2004 deadline was set to notify the college financial aid community and students who are subject to the Pell Grant reductions. The Department of Education did not file these changes until September, leaving many in financial limbo.
Mangione said that some students will receive notification this month, but some might not be notified before the FAFSA deadline. "The bigger issue is that the Department of Education will have no repercussions for filing so late," she said. "Students not knowing if they have to come up with this money makes preparing for next year even harder."
The one saving grace of the financial aid quagmire is that most students who are in need will not lose their assistance. Unfortunately the Department of Education and President Bush's proposals are placing undue strain on those that walk the line between being in need and able to support themselves fully.
When the numbers are added up, a tuition increase, a Pell grant decrease, and a stagnant federal loan level stick the average UB student into even more debt. Students across the country will learn the hard way that Bush's education agenda is indeed "compassionate conservatism" - minus the part about compassion.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
