Under President Barack Obama’s proposed 2010-11 budget, the Department of Education would receive $46.7 billion toward funding various student-loan programs, aimed at increasing affordability and accessibility for college students.
The Senate and House of Representatives approved two similar versions of the $3.5 trillion federal budget last week, which would both support an increase of the maximum Pell Grant award from $5,350 in 2009-10 to $5,500 for the 2010-11 academic year.
Congress will work to reach a compromise on the two versions of the budget beginning April 21.
The Department of Education was allotted $59.2 billion from the 2009-10 budget, and Congress already approved an additional $81.1 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year.
‘While these budget resolutions are only guidelines for the final federal spending plan for 2010, early indications that we are pleased to see include a possible increase in funding for higher education ‘mdash; especially for Pell grants, which are so important to our students,’ UC spokesman Chris Harrington said.
Lastly, the budget would eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan Program ‘mdash; issued through banks and other private lenders ‘mdash; making the Federal Direct Loan Program, which is funded by the Department of Education, the single option for students seeking financial support. It would also increase funding for the Federal Perkins Loan Program from $1 billion to $5 billion, while doubling the 1,800 colleges that currently participate in the program. The plan would provide an estimated 2.7 million additional students with the Perkins Loan ‘mdash; a five-fold increase over the existing 500,000 students receiving the loan now.
The United States Student Association ‘mdash; a student-led organization whose members include several UC students ‘mdash; is lobbying for the House of Representatives’ version of the bill, due to its higher non-discretionary spending on programs that the government considers mandatory, such as Social Security. It also includes ‘budget reconciliation,’ a controversial partisan procedural tactic that would limit debate on proposed policies by allowing the passage of a budget by a simple majority vote, rather than the usual 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster.
‘U.S.S.A. is supporting the House version of the budget because the House version increases the discretionary spending by 3.5 percent, which goes to helping programs like TRIO and G.E.A.R.-U.P. [Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs], and other federal funded academic preparation programs,’ said Clais Daniels-Edwards, legislative director for the UC Student Association, which is affiliated with the U.S.S.A.
The House’s version of the budget includes reconciliation, while the Senate’s version does not. If reconciliation were included in the finalized federal budget, this contentious measure ‘mdash; labeled by Republicans as a heavy-handed tool used by majority Democrats to silence the minority ‘mdash; would expedite the process of enacting spending and taxation legislation by preventing a filibuster by Senate Republicans.
‘[Reconciliation] would create a $1 billion savings by removing some of the government subsidized money to support FFEL lenders,’ Daniels-Edwards said. ‘These savings would go to the Pell Grant, thus being able to increase the maximum award if possible, and make it available to more students.’
Apart from these particular higher-education funding changes, Harrington said the budget is still in its early stages, and does not spell out allocations for most programs.
Readers can contact Sarah de Crescenzo at [email protected].