Bush Unveils $15-Billion Plan to Raise the Pell Grant Ceiling

President Bush said Friday that his new budget would call for raising the maximum Pell Grant by $100 annually over the next five years, a $15-billion proposal that would increase the grants for low-income college students to $4,550 a year.

The president also said that the budget he would submit Feb. 7 would close a $4.3-billion shortfall in the Pell Grant program over the course of a decade.

He made the announcement during an hour-long “conversation on higher education and job training” at Florida Community College here.

Bush said funds for his two-part Pell initiative, totaling $19.3 billion over 10 years, would come from eliminating “excessive subsidies” to lenders and cutting other unnecessary costs in federal student loan programs.

“We’ve got a unique way of saving money, and that saved money from the administration of the student loan program will be plowed into the Pell Grant program,” he said.

But the absence of details drew cautionary words from congressional Democrats.

“I welcome the president’s new proposal, but urge America’s families with kids applying to college to not count their chickens before they hatch,” said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who has worked with Bush on past education reforms.

He noted that Bush, as a presidential candidate in 2000, had promised to raise the maximum amount of Pell Grants to $5,100.

“We’ve been down this road before,” Kennedy said. “President Bush has walked away from all his promises to raise Pell Grants since his first year in office.”

The American Council on Education, the major coordinating body for U.S. institutions of higher education, said it was encouraged by Bush’s proposal, calling it “extraordinary news.”

“While we now await the details below the headlines, it is important to recognize the historic commitment to need-based federal student aid that President Bush has made today,” said David Ward, the group’s president, in a written statement.

The maximum grant has been at $4,050 for the last three years. Late last year, the Bush administration drew criticism from higher education advocates for making changes to the financial aid formula, with congressional approval, that could result in at least 80,000 students losing aid and many others receiving reduced grants.

The program has been under financial pressures because of a rise in the number of eligible students. About 5.3 million students receive Pell Grants.

After the president left the college event, White House spokesman Trent Duffy told reporters that the cuts Bush intended to target would affect only “the administrative side” of the program, adding that “student loans are completely protected.”

But that did not satisfy Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez).

“My first instinct is to say: ‘Show me the money,’ because this administration has a track record of broken promises on education funding,” the congressman said.

Miller and Kennedy have also accused the administration of inadequately funding, by several billion dollars, the No Child Left Behind Act, which both men supported. In the current fiscal year, the law authorized $20.5 billion for spending aimed at low-income and disadvantaged children. But Congress allotted about $12.7 billion. Such spending gaps are not uncommon.

In touting his Pell initiative, Bush chose a favorite format and a familiar setting. A frequent visitor to community colleges during last year’s election campaign, the president shared the stage here with five people, each of whom served to allow Bush to highlight some particular point. Among them was Eric Mitchell, a firefighter with a young family who had returned to Florida Community College, thanks to a Pell Grant.

Bush’s appearance Friday was the second one this week during which he highlighted education issues.

On Wednesday, he called for a mandatory battery of reading and math tests in the ninth, 10th and 11th grades -- an expansion of No Child Left Behind, which imposed testing and accountability standards in the nation’s elementary and middle schools.