Grant Cuts May Force Some Students to End Education

Karen DeGannes, a native of Trinidad who moved to this country six years ago, is making her dreams of college a reality. With the help of loans and scholarships, she now faces her final year as an urban planning major at the University of the District of Columbia.

But DeGannes and thousands of other recipients of federal support in college are nervous. Their educational future may hang on legislation passed in separate versions by the House and Senate that will dramatically reduce the benefits available under Pell Grants, the multibillion-dollar federal scholarship program.

“When I heard of all the cuts that were proposed, I held my breath,” she said, waiting to hear the fate of her own grant. “I don’t think I would be getting through college if I didn’t have those sources,” she said. “I’ve barely survived on what I’ve had.”

Aid to Be Cut

In all probability, DeGannes will continue to receive assistance because she has among the lowest incomes of the low-income students. But many others will not. The legislation approved by a House-Senate conference authorizing higher education grant and loan programs for the next five years will reduce the allotment to $10.2 billion in fiscal 1987 from the current authorization of $11.7 billion.

The formula for assigning grants also has been changed, reducing or eliminating funds for many recipients who are not among the most needy. The formula takes into account family income, assets and benefits, family size, student income and education costs.

In this academic year alone, one education lobbyist estimates, about 145,000 students who had been eligible for the federal grants will not receive any money under the program. About 900,000 other grants will be reduced.

Program Expands

Pell Grants--named after their sponsor, Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.)--are targeted at low-income students, usually from families earning less than $12,000 a year. The program began in 1973, providing 176,000 students with grants costing the government $122 million. Since then, the program has expanded greatly, to 3 million students at a cost of $3.8 billion last year.

However, the Pell Grants are defraying far fewer costs than they did five years ago, says David Ray, research associate for the National Assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities.

The maximum Pell award has increased $700, or 50%, over the life of the program, to $2,100. That only begins to chip away at college costs because they skyrocketed 90% in the same period, said Reginald Wilson of the American Council of Education, an umbrella organization for education groups. “In essence, (low-income families) are being priced right out of higher education,” he said.

Passing Blame

“For the past two, three, four years, the (Education) department has been really low in its estimate” of Pell Grant needs, said Richard Jerue, vice president for governmental relations for the American Assn. of State Colleges and Universities.

The Education Department, in turn, passes along the blame to Congress.

“We have been right on target when we tell Congress what we think that it will cost, and they have been right on target in appropriating less money than necessary,” said Robert Tuccillo, senior program analyst with the department.

The legislation will authorize $200 annual increases in maximum Pell Grant awards through 1991, beginning by making maximum awards worth $2,300 in 1987.

However, Tuccillo said, Congress has typically decided to increase maximum Pell Grant awards without appropriating enough money to fund authorized increases.

Other Programs Suffer

For Congress, the Pell Grant is just one in a long line of financial aid programs to suffer in an era of expanding costs and shrinking budgets--and in a climate of skepticism precipitated by repeated disclosures of fraud, waste and defaults in student loans and other assistance.

The Administration, which originally sought only $6.2 billion in loans and grants authorization for fiscal 1987, wanted to pare the eligibility lists even further.

“What we’ve tried to do is to ask Congress to target the money to the neediest kids,” Tuccillo says. “Congress obviously has felt that isn’t among its priorities.”

But Samuel Myers, president of the National Assn. for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, said his organization studied the Administration eligibility formulas and concluded that, “if those formulas had (been implemented), we would have lost 25% of the students from historically black colleges.”

Minorities Lose

Even without such formulas, many educators believe, blacks and other minorities stand to lose the most in the battle over the Pell Grant and other student assistance. “Income and college tuition rates and the availability of aid impact more on minorities,” said Wilson, who is director of minority issues at the American Council of Education.

In 1975, 32% of the nation’s black high school graduates and 35.4% of Latino graduates were enrolled in college, compared to 27.8% and 29.9% today, he said. Meanwhile, white enrollment has remained steady at 32%.

“As grants decrease, so do the number of minorities” in higher education, Wilson said.

Out of desperation, many students turn to academic loans. Education experts have noted a recent trend that has shifted emphasis to loans from grants: 41% of federal financial aid went to grants this year, compared to 55% in 1980.

DeGannes says she took out a $2,300 guaranteed student loan as “a last resort,” only when it looked as though she would not be able to continue school otherwise.

Forced to Work

“It gets rough. I’ve known people who have had to take a semester off to work,” she said, adding that most of her fellow students have jobs to support themselves and their education.

In a sense, DeGannes is one of the lucky ones. Many other low-income students, mostly minorities, encounter insurmountable difficulties in trying to get academic loans.