Bush's lump of coal for students [View All]

By Clarence Page

Published December 29, 2004


WASHINGTON -- A couple of days before Christmas, thousands of the nation's college students found someone left a big lump of coal in their backpacks.

Just call him President Scrooge. Yes, for a man who likes to call himself an education president, it didn't take President Bush long to break one of his proudest education promises. As recently as his final debate with Sen. John Kerry, the president promised to "continue to expand Pell Grants to make sure that people have an opportunity to start their career with a college diploma." That sounded great. I like to hear presidents talk about improving educational opportunities. Take it from me, children, nothing beats a good education in distinguishing the movers and shakers of this world from those who get moved and shaken.

And the federal scholarships known as Pell Grants have been a spectacular success in encouraging poor and middle-income young people who might otherwise not quite be able to afford to go to college or stay enrolled. Almost all of the 5.3 million Pell recipients come from families earning less than $40,000 a year who, as any parent of a college student can tell you, face a steep climb. College costs have risen 14 percent in the past year alone.

One federal study in the mid-1990s found that a mere $1,000 increase in the average Pell Grant would raise undergraduate retention rates by at least 15 percent. Considering the overall benefits that an educated population brings to our society, that sounds like a bargain.

But two days before Christmas, the Bush administration gave those struggling students an unwelcome surprise: a new Pell Grant eligibility formula that will knock 80,000 to 90,000 students off the eligibility rolls in 2005 and slash grants to 1.3 million others, according to two studies. (Congress' Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance conducted one of the analyses. The other came from the American Council on Education, which represents about 1,800 colleges and universities.)

Happy holidays, kids.
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Full column at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0412290112dec29,1,1506085.column?coll=chi-news-col