President Barack Obama's proposed budget would increase the maximum value of Pell Grants as well as the number of Ohioans eligible for them, according to a report released Thursday by the Institute for America's Future.
Obama's proposal would drastically increase the number of students eligible for Pell Grants in Ohio from 198,043 this year to 208,036 in 2010. The proposal would also increase the average Pell Grant by $118.
In February, Sondra Williams, Ohio University's director of Financial Aid, said 7,121 OU students are currently receiving Pell Grants, totaling an estimated $24 million in aid.
The amount a student can receive in Pell Grants is determined by family income, assets and individual income. Nationally, Obama's budget would provide for an additional 260,000 Pell Grants, with the average grant increasing $121 dollars.
The Institute for America's Future is a liberal think-tank that focuses on environmental and energy policy, health care, social security, education and congressional accountability. Its sister organization, Campaign for America's Future, proposes solutions to the problems uncovered through the institute's research.
We want to express our support for the rather dramatic steps President Obama's budget takes towards college affordability
said Bob Borosage, president of the institute and co-director of the Campaign for America's Future.
The budget proposal also increases the maximum value of a Pell Grant from $5,350 to $5,550. The maximum was increased earlier this year as a part of the $787 billion stimulus package. Prior to the stimulus, the maximum award was $4,731.
Borosage noted the budget proposal would make the increases permanent.
We are in grave danger of making higher education a gated community Borosage said, adding that over the last eight years the average cost of tuition at public colleges in the U.S. has increased 30 percent.
While nationally tuition increased 5 percent between 2006-07 and 2007-08, Ohio students saw an 11 percent decrease, thanks in part to the state-mandated tuition freeze.
Earlier this year, Gov. Ted Strickland proposed extending the freeze to include next year, as well as capping tuition increases among four-year schools at 3.5 percent the following year.
Obama's budget increases the amount of money for
Pell Grants by eliminating bank subsides, said Christine Lindstrom, director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group's Higher Education Program and co-author of the report.
The report notes that rising college costs have undermined the effectiveness of the Pell Grant. In 1977, a Pell Grant could cover 77 percent of public college costs, but this year a maximum grant can cover only 35 percent, according to the report.
Lindstrom stressed that the grant increases are just the first of many legislative steps needed to improve college affordability.
This is a stepping stone Lindstrom said. This is just the initial step.
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Wesley Lowery
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President Barack Obama
