The austere federal budget also left Pell Grants at the current maximum of $5,550 per student. Pell Grants are awarded to college students based on their financial need, and are not paid back to the government.
Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of the student loan website FinAid.org and author of two books on student aid, said he doesn’t expect Pell Grant funding to change in the final version of a bill to fund the federal government until September.
“The agreement as described was in terms of broad brush strokes, but the spreadsheets they use for such negotiations are generally pretty accurate, and historically there haven’t been changes in the final drafted legislation,” Kantrowitz said.
As President Obama and Congressional leaders piece together a long-term compromise, the fate of year-round Pell Grants remains unclear.
“The president’s blog is silent on this issue,” Kantrowitz said.
Some Congressional Republicans continue to push for changes to the Pell Grant program. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) said in an April 5 interview with Blog Talk Radio that Pell Grants constituted the “welfare of the 21st century.”
“You can go to school, collect your Pell Grants, get food stamps, low-income energy assistance, Section 8 housing, and all of a sudden we find ourselves subsidizing people that don’t have to graduate from college,” Rehberg told Blog Talk Radio.
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