Members of the Double Pell Alliance sent a letter June 29 to
the leadership of the House and Senate appropriations committees urging them to
preserve the surplus of funding in the Pell Grant program.
As the committees work within the
discretionary
spending caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the letter, which
includes nearly 100 signatories, encourages the committees to ensure that
funding dedicated to the Pell Grant program is not used to fill budget gaps in
other programs.
"If some of the Pell reserve must be spent on other programs,
we hope it will remain with federal student aid to help more students from
low-income households be able to afford college and receive the economic
benefit a postsecondary degree provides,” the letter reads.
According to the May
baseline from the Congressional Budget Office, the Pell Grant program has over
a $12 billion surplus that is used to supplement funding for the program. Given
the increases in the cost of the program from the $900 increase in the Pell Grant
over the past two fiscal years and the changes to the program in the FAFSA
Simplification Act of 2020, there are concerns that the surplus will be needed
to ensure that the program remains on a sustainable path moving forward.
“Protecting Pell funding against rescissions is a critical step
towards ensuring that the program benefits students, as Congress intended,” the
letter reads.
Since its establishment in 1972, the Pell Grant program has been
the nation’s foundational investment in higher
education. Over 6 million students rely on the Pell Grants to help them attain
a higher education, and about 90 percent of Pell Grant dollars go to students
with a family income below $50,000.
Read the letter here, and
learn more about the effort to double Pell Grants at https://doublepell.org/.