Pell grants avoid government cuts

By: Lauren Rovira/Assistant News Director  

The battle for Pell Grants has come to a close, and concerned students can breathe a sigh of relief.

Congress has enacted only “minimal changes to Pell Grant,” according to an article in St. Louis Today. They have decided to leave the maximum award amount intact and make eligibility requirements more stringent.

Congress has decided to adopt many of the tenets of the House proposal from November.

Starting this July, Pell Grant eligibility will be reduced from 18 semesters to 12 semesters; meaning that once students use a Pell Grant for six years, they will cease to acquire funding. Moreover, only students who possess a high school diploma or GED certificate will be eligible for Pell Grants from here on out.

There has also been a change in how aid is calculated for some low-income families. As of now, families with an adjusted gross income of $30,000 or less are not expected to contribute towards the costs of education.

Starting July, the maximum adjusted gross income to be qualified for an Expected Family Contribution of 0, and thereby the maximum award, will drop to $23,000.

Students within the bracket from $23,000-$30,000 will see cuts as significant as $1,500 a year, explained Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, to St. Louis Today reporter Tim Barker.

Besides these changes, student loans have also experienced a change wherein interest begins to accrue from the date of graduation.

There will no longer be a six month grace period after students complete their studies.

Currently, the University has 17,032 student recipients of Pell Grants. This number comes to about 45 percent of the total student body.

“Pell Grants have a huge impact on FIU,” said Carlos Becerra, director of Federal Relations for FIU in Washington, D.C., “losing Pell Grants for many students may make the difference between taking classes one semester.”

According to some preliminary calculations devised between the Federal Relations Office and the Financial Aid Office of FIU, 1,015 current FIU recipients would potentially lose their current eligibility, and thereby their existing grants.

Approximately, another 5,088 would see a reduction of their grant awards based on the proposed changes.

“The changes are geared to tackle students who have been here too long,” he continued, “the reactions from students towards what has been discussed with regards to Pell over the past few months are overall positive. The cuts have to come from somewhere.”

Phillipa Valencia, a junior studying business and communication, displayed just the opposite; she explained that the losses she sustained earlier this year were sufficient to push her to spend more of her energy on finding resources than focusing on school.

“My budget was tighter.  Even having Bright Futures and Florida Pre-paid, I’m in college, and it’s never enough,” she explained, “It became tougher when my mom got into a car accident.”

“She’s back at work, but she has a special schedule due to some complications and her therapy schedule,” she went on to say, “so she’s spending less time at work, meaning less money; I had to get a job and now I have to depend on myself for everything.”

Another student, Yenny Laura, will begin her first semester this term just prior to the changes taking effect.

“I’m upset because I feel the government should be focusing a larger percentage of their resources on getting people into college and not just by maintaining, or possibly increasing, the available aid for higher education but also by improving public education across the country,” she said, “Education in America is continuing on a downward spiral and reform doesn’t happen overnight.”

Becerra expressed his concerns about the cuts, however, noting, “Most of our students are working class, drastic cuts to the Pell Grant program will directly affect graduation. If students cannot pay for classes one semester because their grants have been cut, they may lose out on the program altogether seeing as the semesters it is applicable are also being reduced.”

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