Congressional Budget for the United States Government for the Fiscal Year 2006

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2006 -- (Senate - March 17, 2005)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to rise in support of Senator KENNEDY's amendment to increase education funding in the budget by $5.4 billion. This amendment will provide additional budget authority for the purpose of addressing many important education needs, including ensuring continued funding for TRIO, GEAR UP, and Perkins vocational education. In addition, this amendment will include funding to raise the maximum Pell grant award to $4,500 this year, which is one of my top legislative priorities for this year.

Our system of higher education is in many ways the envy of the world, but its benefits have not been equally available. Unfortunately, it is still the case that one of the most determinative factors of whether students will pursue higher education is their family income. Students from families with incomes above $75,000 are more than twice as likely to attend college as students from families with incomes of less that $25,000.

To help remedy these inequities, the Federal Government has wisely invested in a need-based system of student financial aid designed to remove these economic barriers. Central to this effort for the past 30 years has been the Pell grant program.

The Pell grant program is the single largest source of grant aid for postsecondary education funded by the Federal Government. It provides grants to students based on their level of financial need to support their studies at the institutions they have chosen to attend.

I have long supported efforts to raise the Pell grant maximum award. I am pleased by the efforts of the Budget Committee to provide a $100 increase in the Pell grant maximum award for this year. But I believe it is imperative that we succeed in providing a more substantial increase in the maximum grant this year.

That is why, as my first legislation of this year, I introduced Senate Resolution 8, calling on the Senate to increase the Pell grant to $4,500 this year. I am very pleased to have Senators FEINGOLD, COLEMAN, KENNEDY, and DURBIN joining me as cosponsors of this resolution. They are all leaders in the effort to expand access to higher education.

The amendment before us builds on the efforts of my resolution, by following up to ensure sufficient budget authority to meet this goal.

While I understand that we face many difficult decisions on the budget resolution before us, I believe that a $450 increase is an imminently reasonable and achievable goal for this year--especially in light of the fact that the Pell maximum grant has gone essentially unchanged for 4 years. After receiving a modest increase of $50 in 2002, the maximum award has been stuck at the $4,050 level for 2003, 2004, and 2005.

In the meantime, the cost of attending college has continued to rise. The combination of these factors over the past 4 years has led to a significant erosion in the purchasing power of the Pell grant, and has forced students to rely increasingly on loans to finance their higher education.

In 1975, the maximum Pell grant covered approximately 80 percent of the costs of attending a public, 4-year institution. Today, it covers less than 40 percent of these costs, forcing students to make up the difference by taking on larger and larger amounts of debt.

The decline in the value of grant aid and the growing reliance on loans have serious consequences for access to higher education for low-income students. The staggering amount of loans causes some students to abandon their plans to attend college altogether. According to the College Board, low-income families are significantly less willing, by almost 50 percent, to finance a college education through borrowed money than their wealthier counterparts.

That does not surprise me. Many working families in Maine are committed to living within their means. Understandably, they are extremely wary of the staggering amount of debt that is now required to finance a college education.

I also know this to be true from my experiences as a college administrator at Husson College in Maine. At Husson, 85-90 percent of students currently receive some sort of Federal financial aid, and--approximately 60 percent of students receive Pell grants.

As Linda Conant, the financial aid director at Husson told me:

You cannot imagine how difficult it is to sit with a family and to explain to them the amount of loans that are needed to finance a post-secondary degree. It scares them. That is why Pell grant aid is so important for low-income families. For these families, loans don't always work, but Pell does.

We also know that having a well-educated workforce is crucial to our economic future and competitiveness in the global economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has projected that over the next 10 years, there will be significant growth in jobs requiring at least some post-secondary education. So increasingly, higher education is going to be necessary to ensure employability and to prepare Americans to participate in tomorrow's economy.

That is why Pell grants are so important. Pell grants make the difference in whether students have access to higher education, and a chance to participate fully in the American dream.

Mr. President, Pell grants are targeted to the neediest of students--recipients have a median family income of only $15,200. An additional $450 in Pell grant aid may very well be the deciding factor on whether these students can pursue their college dreams.

The Pell grant program is the foundation of making good on the American promise of access to higher education. Now is the time for us to make a commitment to raising the Pell maximum award to $4,500 for the upcoming award year. I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting this amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov