I don't believe it: Bush expected to raise Pell Grant

[liberal N proud]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is proposing to raise the maximum Pell Grant award by $500 over the next five years and fix a persistent shortfall in the nation's chief college aid program, The Associated Press has learned.

That would put the maximum grant at $4,550 by 2010 -- up 12 percent from the $4,050 offered today.

The White House declined to disclose whether the president wants to increase the grants received by more than 5 million low-income students

But congressional and education officials familiar with the details of his proposal said Thursday that Bush will call for raising the Pell Grant award $100 a year for five years.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/bush.pell.grant.ap/index.html

Is this going to be another unfulfilled pledge?

[punpirate]

1. One hundred extra dollars per year...

... is better than a sharp stick in the eye, but with this administration, I have to wonder if there's some sleight of hand involved (such as modifying the eligibility requirements to reduce the number of recipients to offset the cost).

[Dees]

2. But didn't ..Failure*..also want to raise

eligibility levels? Net gain...?

[nytemare]

3. Didn't he lower the amount a couple of years ago?

Is this creative number play or "voodoo" economics? I was reading that the deficit reduction will include 100 billion that was just projected, not actual defecit. So, viola, already Bush has reduced the 500 billion deficit to 400 billion, when it was 400 billion to begin with. Curious. :)

[Crackingham]

4. He never misses a chance to spend more money

[leftchick]

5. he just slashed 90,000 out in December!

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/opinion/10536137.htm

A couple of days before the night before Christmas, thousands of the nation's college students found someone left a big lump of coal in their backpacks.

Just call him President Scrooge.

Yes, for a man who likes to call himself an education president, it didn't take President Bush long to break one of his proudest education promises. As recently as his final debate with Sen. John Kerry, the president promised to "continue to expand Pell grants to make sure that people have an opportunity to start their career with a college diploma."

That sounded great. I like to hear presidents talk about improving educational opportunities.

And the federal scholarships known as Pell grants have been a spectacular success in encouraging poor and middle-income young people who might otherwise not quite be able to afford to go to college or stay enrolled. Almost all of the 5.3 million Pell recipients come from families earning less than $40,000 a year who, as any parent of college students can tell you, face a steep climb. College costs have risen 14 percent in the past year alone.

But two days before Christmas, the Bush administration gave those struggling students an unwelcome surprise: a new Pell Grant eligibility formula that will knock 80,000 to 90,000 students off the eligibility rolls in 2005 and slash grants to 1.3 million others, according to two studies.

[AP]

11. Given that the poor and middle have been getting poorer the last

four years, the Pell grant program should have grown.

And given that tutition has been going up, this increase barely covers the increased costs for the few students who will qualify.

[OneTwentyoNine]

6. Sure....He'd promise a chicken in every pot

But then he'd let Tyson merge into a monopoly to where you couldn't afford the damn chicken anyway.

ANYTIME Bush wants to help the less privileged,I'd be looking for the real reason behind it.

[bill]

7. a skillful lie

The whore media will trumpet that * wants to raise PELL grants. What it looks like is a rise in the individual payout per grant while at the same time shorting the program to the tune of ~900K

[papau]

8. Bush new Pell Grant eligibility formula means you can't get extra $100

Heck - you can not get the Pell grant

But do you think the media would point this out?

[stray cat]

9. A bribe to young people to support his Social Security fiasco

[AP]

10. They're giving more to fewer people and cutting the overall size

of the program.

Net result: fewer people going to college, which means more Republican voters down the road.

[leesa]

12. Just because he says something doesn't mean it will happen.

He will probably attach a rider committing them to 20 years of military service in exchange for the extra $500.