I've met students across Rhode Island who rely on Pell Grants. They work hard, play by rules, and are doing everything they can to get the education they need for the jobs of tomorrow. Yet during the debt ceiling negotiations, House Republicans made it all too clear that this vital program for middle-class families is on its hit list, pushing drastic cuts and referring to Pell Grants as "welfare" for our kids.
As the Congressional "supercommittee" prepares to recommend significant budget cuts this fall, there may be a fight for the future of Pell Grants -- and we need to be ready.
When Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell first proposed the grants that now bear his name, he envisioned a way to help students attend our country's wonderful colleges and universities, so they could share in the American Dream.
Today, a full Pell Grant covers just 34% of the costs to attend a public four-year university; down dramatically from the 72% it covered in 1976. Still, a Pell Grant can often mean the difference between being able to attend college or not.
But right now, we are facing a real threat to Pell Grants. Already this year, the House passed a budget that would have slashed Pell Grants, reducing the average award by $1,775 and slashing grants for more than 1.3 million students across the country.
The Senate blocked that proposal, but House Republicans made another failed run at slashing Pell Grants near the end of the recent debt ceiling showdown. Now we're faced with a "supercommittee" that must make $1.5 trillion in cuts -- putting the Pell program in real danger of the cuts House Republicans are pushing for.
We need to make it clear that we are going to stand up for our kids. Please sign the petition to Save Pell Grants and make sure the "supercommittee" knows where you stand on Pell Grants.
Educating our children and giving them the skills they need to compete in a global economy is a smart investment in our country's future. On average, young adults with a bachelor's degree make almost twice as much and are three times less likely to be unemployed than their peers who only possess a high school diploma. And right now there are 9 million Americans who depend on Pell Grants to achieve their dream of a college education. Pell Grants aren't "welfare," they are a gateway to opportunity for some of our nation's best and brightest students.
With many families in Rhode Island and across the country still struggling in this economy, maintaining the Pell Grant program is more important than ever. Please take a moment to sign the petition to Save Pell Grants and send a reminder to the "supercommittee" on where American families stand on Pell Grants.
The bottom line is that our kids deserve a brighter future. They deserve an opportunity to attend college, regardless of their wealth or class. And our economy needs an educated work force that can compete in the global race for jobs. It's imperative that we raise our voices together to stop House Republicans from rolling back one of the greatest investments in our children's future, the Pell Grant.
If you are one of the millions of Americans who have personally benefited from a Pell Grant, please raise your voice and share your story here.
Sheldon Whitehouse is a U.S. Senator for Rhode Island and a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). He can be found on Facebook at Facebook.com/SenatorWhitehouse
Follow Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SenWhitehouse
Robert Scheer: The Men We Trusted to Lead Us
Now you were saying...?
It would be nonsensical and detrimental to our progress as a society to cut these programs. The cuts to Pell Grants to qualifying inmates, yes years ago when you could actually receive an education in prison, sky-rocketed recidivism in 1994 with the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act as it overturned the Higher Education Act that allowed for the issuance of Federal Pell Grants to qualifying inmates.
Don't try and play the tax dollar card on this issue either. For every tax dollar spent on Federal Pell Grants to qualifying inmates there was around $2.75 (Not quite sure on the exact number but 2.70
Congress wouldn't let FDR spend enough to fix Depression. Repubs got elected saying deficit was the problem, forced FDR to cut spending, resulting in Depression reaching worst point in 1938. They wouldn't let the deficit go past 80% of GDP (about same as now) to fix it. But they'd let it get to 130% to fight WWII, and that ended the Depression.
I think we are at that point in the United States of America. We have a country that has gone over the edge of the cliff and unless we start electing leaders who really have the interest of the USA citizens (and not just the top 1 to 2% and the foreign corporate owners) at heart, this country WILL fall to its certain death.
BUT HERE GOES
My heart breaks for all the students who are
trying to go to college today
and
their folks aren't multimillionaires
NOW I'M GONNA BREAK YOUR HEART (1st time)
When I got out of the Army in 74- moved to Calif -AND- as a non-Resident
I was able to take a half-load (6 units) FREE in Community College
A year later, after I was a resident, my Fulltime complete tuition at
San Diego State University was $98.00
Textbooks were still higher than hell
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== HERE'S WHAT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LIKE ==
I THINK THEY SHOULD STOP ALL THE PELL GRANTS
(if interested, I never got one, didn't even know they existed at the time)
I've read countless articles purporting to explain why
the cost of college is raising as fast, if not faster than HealthCare.
AND I've never seen one good explanation that has made any sense except for:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) State Governments have been steadily dropping their support for Higher Education
2) ALSO Colleges keep going making their campuses more and more like 5-Star Hotels
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MY thesis is that colleges keep jacking up tuition to whatever level the students
are able to pay
I think that all that Pell Grant money flowing into the college system, is "a";
if not "the" primary driver of the ever escalating tuition increases.
I believe that students should take out loans and invest in themselves
First thing to go - the no-bid contracts. You could save billions of dollars if contractors had to bid for their Pentagon projects. Would you ask a plumber or roofer to repair your house and charge you what they feel like? No, you would get bids and estimates and quotes and hold them to it. So why not in defense?
I would hate to see this program cut.
Let me tell you what my "useless" degree is doing these days. In three weeks I will be coordinating my second free health care clinic that will provide medical care to over 200 uninsured familes. In 6 weeks I gear up for the 8 free income tax preparation clinics that I coordinate every year to help low-mod income taxpayers. This morning I submitted the final report on my county-wide food drive that raised over 10K to fill the shelves of our local food pantries. Oh yeah, and tomorrow I'm sending out a Request For Proposals for a youth service grant that I adminster which provides our local schools with funding to faciliate mentoring and literacy programs.
But hey...it's not nearly as good as having a math degree, right?
Regardless of any win you may achieve with Pell Grants, the system as it stands is irretrievably broken.
You don't mean "free", you mean let SOMEONE else pay for it
We would even include you in the bounty of knowledge and worldwide competitiveness that can be had by becoming as highly educated as you care to be and are able to accomplish.
We ALL pay for it. We ALL gain from it.