Shays Faults Colleges for Federal Grants’ Ineffectiveness
By Brian Dolan
WASHINGTON— Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4) Wednesday defended President Bush’s decision not to increase the size offederal grants for college students, saying that boosting federal aid would only spur universities to raise tuition and reduce other scholarships and loans.
“I am interested in grants for students—I have a daughter that’s going to be applying to school soon—but isn’t it a fact that just as we increase the Pell Grants and other grants, the administrations just raise their tuitions?” Shays said at a House Budget Committee hearing. “So who is getting these grants, the students or the university?”
Bush has proposed holding the line on Pell Grants, the federal government’s scholarship program for students primarily from low-income families. The president’s budget proposal for fiscal 2005, which could be changed by Congress, would maintain the current maximum of $4,050 per grant, but increase the number of grants issued by as many as 400,000.
Under Bush’s proposal, Pell Grants would be awarded to about 5.3 million undergraduates in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Unlike student loans, Pell Grants do not have to be repaid.
Following Shays’ comments, university officials and their representatives sought to demonstrate they have not raised tuition in response to increased federal support for students.
“The facts would show that Mr. Shays is completely wrong,” said Terry Hartle, the senior vice president of the American Council on Education, an organization that represents universities nationwide. “The Department of Education has investigated the relationship between federal student aid and college tuition increases and found no relationship whatsoever.
“Indeed, the only factor they could associate with college tuition increases is state support,” Hartle said in an interview. “In other words, as state support goes down—tuition goes up. Ironically, periods of increasing Pell Grant support areassociated, on the face of things, with a slower increase of tuition. Mr. Shays would like to posit just the opposite.”
But Education Secretary Roderick Paige agreed with Shays that increasing federal aid would help universities rather than students.
“Our role at the U.S. Department of Education is to supplement state and local efforts, not to supplant them,” Paige said.
Despite his criticism of universities, Shays, the Budget Committee’s vice chairman, said he believes Pell Grants are an important asset to students who receive them.
“Pell Grants help students help themselves,” Shays said in a statement issued following the hearing. “They allow millions of American students to pursue an undergraduate degree they otherwise would not be able to afford. Pell Grants have a proven record of success, and I support the president’s commitment to this program.”
Paige said at the hearing that Bush had proposed increasing spending on the Pell Grant program by $856 million, for a total of $12.9 billion in fiscal 2005.He said the increase would mean more than 1 million additional students would receive Pell Grants next year than when the president took office.
Paige said the proposed increase included $33 million for a program called Enhanced Pell Grants for State Scholars, which provides $1,000 each for low-income freshmen who took challenging courses in high school.
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, countered that the proposed spending increase was simply “rhetoric” because the administration had failed to compensate for inflation and tuition increases.
“The Bush administration has thrown around rhetoric that they have increased funding in this program by billions. It’s just that—rhetoric,” Miller said. He said the grant is worth $500 less than the maximum grant in 1975-76 when adjusted for inflation.
Bush’s proposal, Miller said, “fails to make college more affordable because if fails to address rising college costs, the declining buying power of college grants or the rising debt carried by college students.”
Miller’s spokesman, Tom Kiley, said Pell Grants originally were intended to cover three-fourths the cost of tuition but now cover less than half.
“The idea that taking away the Pell Grant would not be detrimental to the students who depend on it is, frankly, a ridiculous one,” Kiley said.
Yearly tuition for state residents averages $4,694 a year at four-year public colleges and universities and $19,710 at four-year private institutions, according to the College Board, a not-for-profit organization that provides students with information on postsecondary schools and creates standardized tests.
Annual tuition for the University of Connecticut is $4,730 for state residents and $14,425 for out-of-state students.
