Kimberly
Hughes, Program Assistant
Student Support
Services, CSUF Foundation
MS LS 140
559-278-5725
phone
559-278-1441
fax
Email:
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"Optimism
is the Faith that leads to Achievement. Nothing can be done without Hope and
Confidence." ~ Helen Keller
From: Heather
Valentine [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 5:14
AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: From Inside Higher Ed:
Mitchem article on Pell Grants: The Glass Half Full
The following article on the link between Pell
Grants and TRIO and GEAR UP by Arnold Mitchem was published in the
"Views" section of Inside Higher Ed today.
Inside Higher Ed
Pell Grants: The Glass Half
Full
June 1, 2009
By
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President Obama's avowed goal is to provide an
"education so that every child can compete in the global economy," and
in so doing to restore the United States' leadership role by having the highest
proportion of college graduates in the world by the year 2020. He's recognized
that one of the mechanisms necessary to achieve that is to transform Pell
Grants into an entitlement.
The Pell Grant program is the sine qua non of equal educational
opportunity. It represents one of the most important mechanisms developed in
higher education to ensure low-income students are afforded financial access to
postsecondary opportunities. By all accounts, Pell Grants historically have
contributed to allowing millions of low-income students unparalleled access to
higher education in the last four decades, and yet they have been vulnerable to
funding shortfalls and their value has frequently lagged behind college cost
increases. Therefore, proposing to make the Pell Grant an entitlement is a
smart step by the Obama Administration. This constitutes a much-needed,
long-overdue reform.
However, unless the administration changes
course, it is likely to squander this terrific opportunity for the
So the president's reform measure, as it now
stands, resembles nothing so much as a doctor's prescription to treat a complex
condition - in this case, barriers to postsecondary access and attainment -
with a single medication. In isolating an important and necessary pre-condition
- the provision of financial aid - but failing to consider other dimensions of
this phenomenon, the treatment is doomed to failure.
Unless and until the administration addresses
the full spectrum of causes, it will not achieve its goals. And until it takes
a holistic approach to student aid, its enormous investment in Pell Grants will
not be fully leveraged.
Simply put, the Obama administration's
definition of student aid is far too narrow. What is desperately needed instead
is a more comprehensive view of student aid that reflects the recognition that
low-income and first-generation students face multiple barriers - class,
cultural, informational, academic, and social - to postsecondary education, and
not just a lack of funds. Merely providing financial resources through
mechanisms like the Pell Grant alone will not solve the problem of getting
first-generation and low-income students through college. Congress recognized
this more than a quarter of a century ago in the Education Amendments of 1980
when it proclaimed the principle that the TRIO programs were "an integral
part of the student assistance programs aimed at achieving equal educational
opportunity."
"Without the information, counseling, and
academic services provided by the TRIO programs," the House Report went on
to say, "disadvantaged students are often unable to take advantage of the
financial assistance provided by the other Title IV programs, and more
importantly, such students do not develop their talents by gaining access to
postsecondary educational opportunities and completing a course of study once
they have embarked on it."
By investing in financial aid but not providing
increases for TRIO and GEAR UP, the Obama administration is failing to raise
the aspirations of low-income students and to equip them with the tools
necessary to persist in their studies and, ultimately, achieve college degrees.
Thus we have to conclude that in this budget, the Administration is, perhaps
unwittingly, undermining its own policy goals.
There is ample evidence that financial aid alone
has never been and can never be the "silver bullet" to guarantee
educational opportunity. And the public investment in Pell Grants has grown so
large that there is a real liability to taxpayers unless it can be properly
leveraged. In fact, just over the last eight years, Pell Grants have seen a 214
percent increase in funding (from $8.8 billion FY2001 to $18.8 billion in
FY2009).
Looked at another way, in constant terms,
funding for Pell Grants in the last three decades has grown by 143 percent. Yet
the disparity in bachelor's degree attainment rates between students from the
top and bottom quartiles of family income has nearly doubled since 1970,
according to Tom Mortenson in "Family Income and Higher Education
Opportunity, 1970-2006."
Through a comparison of college completion rates
of Pell recipients who did and did not receive support services, we know that
Pell Grants alone do not suffice to retain low-income and first-generation
students. Data from the U.S. Department of Education show that six years after
beginning a postsecondary program, students who have participated in TRIO
Student Support Services have a higher rate of earning a baccalaureate degree
(30.9 percent) than other low-income college students, regardless of whether
they received (21 percent) or did not receive (8.9 percent) Pell Grants.
Yet the president's budget continues the pattern
of previous years of level funding. Funding for TRIO and GEAR UP programs that
provide such vital supports to low-income and first-generation students has
essentially been flat for the last seven years. By virtue of this stagnant
funding as well as rising costs, TRIO programs serve 25,000 fewer students now
than in 2003.
Here's what we know for certain: This year, an
estimated 1.6 million low-income students will begin their pursuit of a
postsecondary degree. If previous trends continue, only 176,000 of these
students will earn a baccalaureate within the next six years. And if the
president's budget proposal is enacted, about 20,000 students already in
college will lose support services, thus increasing the likelihood that they
will fail to earn degrees.
Is it possible that President Obama is ignoring
his campaign promise to support TRIO, GEAR UP, and the first-generation and
low-income students the programs serve across the country? During a May 2008 speech in
Denver then-candidate Obama said the key to
improving the lives of American families was to "expand college outreach
programs like GEAR UP and TRIO." If these "promises" are to
become reality, President Obama must act decisively to assume responsibility
for students' success now.