Bravo to the U.S. Senate Democrats who went to bat this week for us college students. On Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., took the first big step to improve funding for college students across America at a time when tuition and living costs are skyrocketing at a much faster rate than the average student seems able to pay for them.
As part of congressional reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that is slated for next year, the senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would give an additional $15 billion every year in federal funding to colleges and universities and their students. This money would go toward funding federal grants and incentives for schools to cut costs.
The bill would benefit federal educational grants such as the Pell grant. Under the act, the maximum a student can receive in the form of a Pell grant would be increased by almost $500 to $4500. The Hope scholarship tax credit would also be increased to up to $3000.
This additional funding comes at a time when many state universities, including our own, are being forced to raise tuition due to insufficient state funding.
A major aspect of the "College Quality, Affordability and Diversity Improvement Act of 2003" is its ability to punish state legislators for cutting funding to universities. The bill would do this by eliminating states' federal education funding if they cut higher education spending by more than 10 percent from the year before without getting approval from the Department of Education.
Efforts made by schools to cut overhead costs would be rewarded with funding to offset a portion of the startup costs associated with such a change. Schools could cut their overhead by pooling resources and sharing things such as library acquisitions and legal counsel.
While the bill does a lot to assist the state schools directly, it also comes at a very important time for the federal financial aid system.
The federal Department of Education is currently pushing a change that would cause 85,000 college students to lose their Pell grants and hundreds of thousands of others to receive less money. This is being done through an attempt to change the formula that decides how much federal aid a student receives in the form of a Pell grant.
The Department of Education is currently using a formula based on early 1990s tax figures, which, compared to current figures, was rather generous in funding numbers. When the formula was devised, it was intended to be updated regularly to keep up with state tax figures. That didn't happen.
Now the Bush administration is pushing to have the formula updated with 2000 tax figures. Coincidentally, 2000 was the year before the recession that sent state taxes up. Hmm...
If the change in the way the Department of Education formulates Pell grant aid does go through, it will make college simply not an option for tens of thousands of students who rely on grants to pay for their education.
That is why the Democratic senators' bill is so important. By increasing funding to the federal grant programs, along with the many other benefits, the act is sending a message to the Department of Education and the states that education is still important to us, and Congress is willing to pay for it.
As of now, no Republican senators have signed on to support the act, but it is receiving broad support within the Democratic Party. While this bill is the first of several that will make up the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act next year, it is a step in the right direction. Let's just hope that the Republican majority in the senate will see things the same way.
Grant Klinzman is a journalism junior. Reach him at grant.klinzman@asu.edu.
