No Decreases for Pell Grant Funding

For the 32nd consecutive year, The University of Alabama’s Office of Media Relations offers predictions from faculty experts for the coming year.

Don’t expect Pell Grant funding to decrease in 2013, a University of Alabama professor predicts.

Though new restrictions left thousands without their anticipated funding in fall 2012, Dr. Stephen Katsinas say he is confident the federal government won’t axe Pell Grant funding if and when it hammers out a new budget in the coming year.

“Mr. Romney supported Pell grants in the second presidential debate; while President Obama benefited from a substantial youth vote, which was concerned about Pell grants,” says Katsinas, director of UA’s Education Policy Center. “I think we’re coming to grips with the notion that more of our people need to be educated if we’re to again be No. 1 in the world in higher education.

“There’s also realization that we’re not going to balance the federal budget on the backs of college students,” Katsinas added. “So, I think prospects are good.”

Katsinas says the worry that states have, largely due to the recession, is increasing amounts of students receiving federal aid. Katsinas, his student research associates at the UA center, and Dr. Nathanial Bray, UA associate professor of higher education, recently completed a study of the impact of Pell Grants in Alabama for the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

They found that new federal eligibility restrictions reducing the maximum number of Pell-Grant-eligible semesters, lowering the zero Expected Family Contribution from $32,000 to $23,000, and other restrictions are affecting more students at state universities than at community colleges.

“This isn’t a forward thinking strategy for a state that’s trying to improve college-degree completion,” Katsinas said. “We went from six million to nine million students on Pell grants from 2009 to 2012. This is coming at a time when the nation and Alabama is seeing a significant expansion in the number of students of traditional college-going years. There are 25,000 more 18-24 year-olds in Alabama in 2012 than there were in 2009. These increased numbers are here now –whether or not our state is in recession, and whether or not we choose to help them go to college.

“The administration and Congress have been quite supportive in recent years,” he added. “My hope is that it continues.”

As for growing concerns about student-loan debt, Katsinas says the greater issue is college affordability and limiting tuition increases, which have occurred as the states have reduced funding for public universities. He foresees the government possibly using federal aid as a lever to offset tuition increases.

“A number of members of Congress are already talking in these terms,” Katsinas said. “I look for more of that in the future as access becomes more of an issue.

“You cannot reallocate your way to excellence in public higher education; we simply have to increase investment.”