Senate blocks Pell Grant changes

College students could have lost $270 million in financial aid had Senator Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) and others not acted to halt a Department of Education change in the formula used to calculate federal grants.

Last May, the Department of Education updated the "tables used in the federal need analysis for student financial aid," according to a letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. The result would change the tables in such a way that could be detrimental to certain students across the country -- potentially eliminating approximately 84,000 students from Pell Grant eligibility.

Pell Grants are given directly to students and do not have to be repaid.

Corzine blocked the DOE change in the fall in an amendment to another bill, according to a September press release from his office.

The Senate will soon consider making this change permanent as part of a larger federal appropriations bill in the upcoming weeks, said a Penn administrator close to the issue, who did not want his name published.

William Schilling, Penn's director of Student Financial Services, explained how Pell Grants are calculated, noting that they involve money that is attached directly to the student -- not his or her educational institution.

The federal government calculates grant money based on a student's expected family contribution -- the amount of money a student's family is expected to pay toward his or her college education.

If the family's EFC is $3,850 or less, then the government subtracts that number from $4,050 -- the maximum possible Pell Grant -- to decide the potential amount of the final grant, Schilling said.

The problem that Corzine faced was that the re-evaluation of the data tables would either cause certain students to be eligible for less Pell Grant money or, if they were not receiving much in the first place, be eliminated from eligibility altogether.

Corzine contends that the result would be the loss of more than $270 million in financial aid if these updates were allowed to be implemented.

Additionally, he says that 84,000 students would lose their grant money next year.

He called the Senate measure "a victory for college students across the country."

He added that "this amendment is the first step in restoring Pell grants," to all those who may have lost them.

"The higher education community, which of course includes Penn, was supportive of what Corzine was proposing and is supportive of increased Pell grants," said the Penn administrator who did not want his name published.

He mentioned that the community also supports Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who helped "include it in the final bill," as he is the chairman for the Senate Subcommittee for Appropriations on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.

"The community and Penn are always advocating for increased student aid," the administrator said.

Proponents of the proposed DOE change argue that the update is long overdue and is not an attempt to cut the budget.

Paige claimed that student financial aid is one of his greatest concerns.

In a letter to Congressman Ric Keller (R-Fla.), he wrote that "President Bush and I have made funding Pell Grants one of the administration's highest priorities."

According to the letter, "almost one million more students [are] receiving Pell Grants than before the president took office and we expect more students to receive grants next year as compared to this year regardless of the update to the... table."

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