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Thanks for next to nothing

Pell Grant increase really just leveling the playing field

By Melissa Armes

Posted on Friday, January 21st, 2005, 12:00 am

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With the beginning of the new semester, the latest addition to my student bill is fresh in my mind. Maybe you shared the same uplifting experience as I did when I saw “Federal Pell Grant” listed on my student bill – cha-ching, free money. Those three blessed words have saved me a few hundred dollars each year in tuition loans. So maybe it’s not as much money as I could save if I switched to GEICO, but it helps. The less I owe after graduation, the better my chances are of not having to move back in with my parents for the next 30 years while I pay off my student loans.

It seems that the poor college student may have something to cheer for: federal grants. Unfortunately, they are not as helpful as they could be. I’m not unappreciative of my free federal money. I understand I pay squat for taxes, so this money I’m getting is a free gift. On the other hand, I’ll be paying plenty of taxes in my many working years to come. I’m only asking for a small advance of the government’s services, which I will be repaying for the rest of my life.

Lucky for me, President Bush is asking Congress to increase Pell Grant awards by 100 dollars a year for the next five years. If Congress approves this, it will mean poor college students, like you and me will be eligible for $4,550 in free money each year toward our tuition bills. Could it be that he heard the college students’ plea for help in the face of skyrocketing tuition costs? Not exactly.

For one, Bush promised to increase Federal Pell Grants during his 2000 Presidential campaign and is only now getting around to seriously addressing the issue. As a senior who depends on financial aid, I would liked to have seen start seeing that money four years ago.

Bush and the Department of Education are giving this proposal a lot of attention, but that doesn’t mean it is their best work. Bush’s renewed focus on the popular Pell Grant program is conveniently timed, taking attention away from a recent scandal in which the government is accused of paying for positive press on the No Child Left Behind law, another Department of Education project.

Bush has not really increased these monetary awards as much as he would like us to believe. His proposed boost in the maximum Pell Grant award would increase possible awards by 12 percent – a hefty increase. In 2004 alone, tuition at public colleges, like the University of Maine, increased by an average of 10.5 percent. Bush is making it sound like he’s doing low-income college students a favor. In reality, he hasn’t even leveled the playing field, forcing us to take out more in student loans each year.

What’s a college student with bills to do? There are always credit card applications promising to save the day while providing a free t-shirt and eternal debt. Getting a job helps, but there are groceries, rent and gas that sucks up most of a college student’s part-time paycheck.

I’m going to e-mail my congressmen and tell them how they could really help me out. I need a federal grant award in that is proportion with increasing tuition costs. I need a federal government that understands the need of my generation to educate itself without sinking deep into personal debt. I need my president to see my potential and invest in my future, understanding that my future is a crucial element of this country’s future.

If increasing federal handouts to worthy college students isn’t in the federal government’s budget, they should reconsider their priorities. For example, granting enormous corporate tax breaks to companies whose interests do not include the greater good of this country certainly does not help the future of our generation. Tell your representative where you want the money they’re denying you to be used: right here on your campus.

Melissa Armes is a senior English major.