Pell Grants

Thank you for Tami Luhby's thoughtful, yet distressing analysis of the stark differences in college graduation rates ("College gap widens between rich, poor," Nov 25). Given the Census Bureau's new supplemental poverty measure that shows that 49.1 million Americans are poor (16.1 percent), the research Ms. Luhby cites from the Universities of Michigan and Wisconsin suggests that economic and social mobility by low and moderate income families will worsen. Moreover, recent amendments to both House and Senate federal legislation seek to deny students who earn their GEDs from receiving Pell Grants to further their education and training.

Thank you for Tami Luhby's thoughtful, yet distressing analysis of the stark differences in college graduation rates ("College gap widens between rich, poor," Nov 25). Given the Census Bureau's new supplemental poverty measure that shows that 49.1 million Americans are poor (16.1 percent), the research Ms. Luhby cites from the Universities of Michigan and Wisconsin suggests that economic and social mobility by low and moderate income families will worsen. Moreover, recent amendments to both House and Senate federal legislation seek to deny students who earn their GEDs from receiving Pell Grants to further their education and training.

Fraud in Pell Grants is like fraud in defense procurement: The moral is to clean up the program, not get rid of it.Imagine what it cost the nation and media for a passel of cameras to follow Bill to West Virginia where he went for the purpose of having his picture taken.

For much of the early history of the U.S., college was only for a small segment of society, the elite. As the need for more practical education and broader access to higher education became apparent if the United States was going to fully develop its engineering and agricultural sectors to outcompete the rest of the world, the federal government passed the Morrill Act of 1862, which promoted the development of land grant universities in each state....

Edwin Downs is a hard-working college freshman. He's also a convicted murderer serving a sentence of life plus 20 years in a maximum-security Jessup prison.It's a combination that doesn't sit well with Congress, which appears poised to stop paying for college tuition for Downs and other inmates.One provision of the anti-crime bill under final consideration in Washington would prohibit inmates from receiving federally funded scholarships known as Pell grants.Prisoners should not be getting college scholarships when many middle-class taxpayers can't afford tuition, proponents of the ban say.Others say a ban would be a short-sighted abandonment of the concept of rehabilitation.

CLAIBORNE PELL, 90 U.S. senator, creator of Pell Grants Claiborne Pell, the quirky blueblood who represented blue-collar Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate for 36 years and was the force behind a grant program that has helped tens of millions of Americans attend college, died yesterday at his Newport home after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Mr. Pell, a Democrat, spoke with an aristocratic tone but was an unabashed liberal who spent his political career championing causes to help the less fortunate.

THE BAD NEWS for poor and minority youngsters wanting to go to college just got worse.A recent study has reaffirmed that the cost of higher education continues to climb, making it more unaffordable for low-income families. The study was done for the Institute for Higher Education Policy and the Education Resources Institute.That news, combined with the assault on affirmative action that has resulted in enrollment declines, means that fewer blacks, Latinos and other nonwhites will be seen on the nation's campuses.

IN A FEW WEEKS, at the close of this current academic year, college programs at prisons all over the country will end. That's when a provision of the Omnibus Crime Bill takes effect. That measure, which allocates substantial money to states for the building and operation of new prisons and detention centers, eliminates the use of federal Pell grants for prisoners.Educational programs for inmates vary, especially in state prisons. Adult basic education and general equivalency diploma classes are usually standard.

Jessup. -- Peanut is a man of few words, but his gaze can peel paint and he frowns eloquently about something Congress may do regarding Pell grants.Peanut's given name is Eugene Taylor. He has spent about half his 42 years situated as he now is, behind bars and barbed wire, sentenced to life plus 25 years for murder and armed robbery. He dropped out of school in the 9th grade. The school, he indicates, had no strong objection. Sentimentalists who think there is no such thing as a bad boy never met Peanut in his misspent youth.

Some 2,000 Maryland college students -- permanent American residents, who are not citizens -- would likely be stripped of their eligibility for several million dollars in federal grants and loans each year if a congressional proposal to cut aid for legal immigrants becomes law.The little-noticed provision, buried in a congressional plan for sharp reductions in welfare spending, would shake the states of California and New York most vigorously. But Maryland has a relatively high number of legal immigrants on its campuses, and area college officials interviewed were unanimous in opposition to the measure.

President Barack Obama's heart was in the right place when he made his Valentine's Day visit to a technology middle school in Parkville. Yet even as the president sought to encourage investment in education, the new spending plans of both the administration and House Republicans spell bad news for America's role as a knowledge and innovation leader. Maybe the word hasn't reached everyone in Washington, but the global innovation sweepstakes is definitely on, and the competition is brutal.

T he federal student loan program has gone through many changes in its 45-year history, and now it's time for the next big step: cutting out the middleman. That's what the Obama administration proposes to do starting in July. Students now get federal loans through a private lender or directly from the government. Obama wants all federal loans to come straight from Uncle Sam, which would create a net savings of $62 billion through 2020, according to figures last week from the Congressional Budget Office.

CLAIBORNE PELL, 90 U.S. senator, creator of Pell Grants Claiborne Pell, the quirky blueblood who represented blue-collar Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate for 36 years and was the force behind a grant program that has helped tens of millions of Americans attend college, died yesterday at his Newport home after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Mr. Pell, a Democrat, spoke with an aristocratic tone but was an unabashed liberal who spent his political career championing causes to help the less fortunate.

Confused about tuition costs or the terms of private education loans? Wish you knew the price of textbooks before signing up for a class? Well, you no longer will be in the dark. The Higher Education Act, recently renewed by Congress, is all about transparency. The updated act requires new disclosures on the cost of textbooks and tuition as well as the terms of private loans. These disclosures take aim at some of the problems afflicting higher education: Skyrocketing tuition. Soaring textbook prices.

The idea of politicians tinkering with billions of dollars in the student loan program can make anyone a bit wary. But this time they got it right, with students coming out the winner in legislation passed recently by Congress and to be signed by the president. The law will cut nearly $21 billion in government subsidies to lenders over the next five years. Almost all the money will be plowed back into grants for the poorest students, lower interest rates and loan forgiveness for those in careers that society values but nevertheless underpays.

The largest high school classes in history - those of 2008 and '09 - are moving toward college, and with tuition still soaring this should be a bonanza for the already burgeoning student-loan business. In January, the new House of Representatives passed a bill that would cut into profits somewhat by requiring a 50 percent reduction in interest rates on new government-guaranteed loans, to be paid for with higher fees and reduced subsidies for the lenders. In the Senate, Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, has introduced a more sweeping measure, which cuts interest rates but also provides more money for the Pell grants that benefit lower-income students.

WASHINGTON -- A million more students -- mostly those from middle-income families -- will find it easier to go to college under an election-year deal struck this week by President Bush and Congress.Middle-income students will find federally guaranteed college loans easier to obtain. More working-class students will qualify for subsidies known as Pell grants. The legislation will also set up an experimental program of low-interest, direct government loans for college tuition.The bill increases the amount of money that middle-income students can borrow from banks for loans subsidized by the government.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans in Congress have abandoned a plan to deny federal higher education aid to lawful immigrants, but still want to limit access to the Head Start program for the youngest legal aliens.Republican welfare legislation would limit, and in some instances deny, the right of aliens lawfully in this country to receive most kinds of federal aid, including food stamps, Medicaid and short-term child welfare.But after protests from spokesmen for colleges and universities, who insisted that education was not welfare, a House-Senate conference committee decided last week to drop the proposed ban on immigrants' receiving Pell grants, which provide scholarship aid to college students, and federal student loans.

Attention college students: Was your high school academic program tougher than usual? Or, are you majoring in engineering, genetics or Urdu? If so, you just might be eligible for one of two new federal grants designed to spur U.S. students to become more competitive in math, science and foreign languages. The Academic Competitiveness grant and the National Science and Mathematics Access to Retail Talent (SMART) grant together will award $790 million in the coming school year. Grants range from $750 to $4,000.

PRESIDENT Bush has made a commendable commitment to the federal Pell Grant program, which helps lower-income students attend college. In a speech in Florida last week, he pledged to eliminate the program's current $4 billion deficit and increase the maximum grant by $100 for each of the next five years. But it's not clear that the increased costs can be paid for by potential savings suggested in the president's sketchy proposal. And Mr. Bush will really need to push Congress to help him make good on his promises.