Tom Harkin: “This amendment would add $1.35 billion to the Pell Grant Program, which would make it possible to increase the maximum…”

“This amendment would add $1.35 billion to the Pell Grant Program, which would make it possible to increase the maximum grant award from $4,000 to $4,500. Pell grants are the key program for making sure that poor and middle class students have the same opportunity to attend college as our wealthy students. Pell grants buy a lot less than they used to. In 1976 the maximum Pell grant award paid for 84 percent of the average 4-year public college tuition. Last year it paid for half of that, just 42 percent. So we have fallen far behind in Pell grants. With the economy still in a rut, more people laid off, more unemployment, two things are going to happen. More students would like to go to college, to fine-tune their job skills and enhance their careers. Second, more and more families will fall below the eligibility line. So kids who may not have qualified for Pell grants in the past will now qualify because their parents are unemployed, or not employed full time. So the demand in the Pell grant program will go up as the economy continues to slow down.”