Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993 TAG: 9311260013
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-15 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lawmakers changed financial requirements to favor middle-income students, allowing some to receive Pell grants this year for the first time, the analysts said, even though the program, created in the 1960s, is intended to help the neediest college students.
Consequently, educators expect the number of students who receive Pell grants to continue growing, with middle-income students replacing some of the poorer ones.
"No one will think to restore grants for poorer students because, as far as numbers are concerned, Pell will still be helping out as many people, if not more," said Terry Hartle, vice president of the American Council on Education, which has lobbied legislators to reconsider their actions.
At public schools, changes in the Pell program have stranded hundreds of students without grants, financial aid officials said.
Private schools report they're not affected much.
Congress may have disappointed 2 million college students nationwide who have seen their Pell grants disappear or decline this school year, U.S. Department of Education officials said. Last year, the program gave $6 billion to 4 million undergraduates - an average $1,475 each.
Financial aid officials say that because 1993-94 Pell eligibility was based on 1992 earnings, many students unwittingly made themselves ineligible. Though Pell qualifications are public record, they're otherwise not well-publicized, officials said.
"None of the students found out about the changes until they came back to school this year and lost money," said Ray Boldreghini, assistant financial aid director at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Nationally, the loss of Pell awards has ranked among students' top complaints this year, according to student aid administrators.
"We've never seen changes in Pell that have impacted students so negatively in Pell's entire history," said Larry Zaglaniczny of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
"I didn't know we were going to have so many lose out," said Carolyn Cunningham, financial aid director at the University of North Texas in Denton.
"If we didn't have loan programs to push them into, we'd have chaos. But I'm concerned that we're forcing low-income populations to borrow large amounts to stay in higher ed."
At Texas Woman's University in Denton, Sheila Harkey, who had gotten a $950 grant for two years, was one of the students who no longer qualified, even though her financial situation changed little. Her husband, a Denton electrician, earns $26,000 annually. She makes about $3,500 a year from part-time jobs while also studying occupational therapy.
So she took a second part-time job cleaning apartments, along with working as a university office assistant.
This academic year, the government is spending $5.8 billion to finance Pell grants and has appropriated $6.3 billion for 1994-95. Amounts vary, but maximum awards this year are $2,300. Pell grants are based on student and parental income.
Upper-income students aren't barred from applying for Pell. But recipients typically don't have jobs and depend on parents who earn less than $43,000 a year, Education Department officials said.
Although that would suggest patronage to poorer students, lawmakers last year changed Pell qualifications that excluded some of them. Lawmakers, eager to appease a recession-battered middle class, justified those measures by saying that because students directly benefit from a college degree, they, and not their parents or anyone else, ought to be financially responsible for it, according to Education Department memos.
"Trust Congress to find a way to help themselves in an election year," Hartle said. "It doesn't make sense to take from the poor to do it, but that's what happened."
Consider:
Students of lower-income families, who are more likely to work to afford college than their middle-class counterparts, now hamper their Pell eligibility as they earn more. Students who are single and still dependent on their parents can now earn only $1,750 a year before their wages are counted against them for Pell eligibility. During the 1992-93 school year, those students could exclude $3,500 in wages.
Many financially independent students who support only themselves are less likely to qualify for Pell. Those students now can exclude only $3,000 in wages when applying for grants. Formerly, they could exclude $6,400. Education Department officials estimate that more than 75 percent of these students earn less than $10,000 anyway because they squeeze in part-time work with their studies.
Some married couples also lose. A married student who is the only one in college now can exclude only $6,000 in family income when applying for Pell. If both spouses are in college, each now can exclude only $3,000 in family income when applying for the grant. In previous years, married students could exclude $8,000 each.
by CNB