The Republican Budget Bill Rips College Away From the Working Class

The changes to the Pell Grant program increase the number of credit hours that are required to qualify as a full-time student, from 12 to 15, and cut off aid entirely for students attending less than half-time. For most college programs, that effectively requires one additional class per semester to get the maximum loan, around five classes total, and amounts to an almost $1,500 cut for students taking 12 credit hours who can’t add to their course load. It would also entirely cut off an estimated 20 percent of students currently receiving aid. “It is a full-out assault on the ability of students—especially low-income students—to access and afford higher education,” Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education, told Inside Higher Ed last week. And it will only save the government an estimated $67 billion through the next decade, in a bill that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will add $3.1 trillion to the deficit over that time period.

Advocates have said that the requirements are likely to hit the hardest for students who need to work or take care of a child while in college. “It just completely ignores the reality that the majority of these students are not able to take five courses because they’re also juggling the realities of life … working multiple part-time jobs just to get by,” said Aissa Canchola Banez, the policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, a nonprofit that wants to eliminate student debt.

The 50-year-old Pell Grant program was designed to enable the poorest students to attend school by providing them with tuition assistance they didn’t have to pay back. Today, most recipients come from families making less than $60,000 a year. Overall, the value of the amount provided has diminished over the years because the small increases lawmakers have made haven’t kept up with inflation, not to mention the much faster-rising costs of college. The grant once covered almost three-fourths of tuition and now only covers a little over a quarter.