US Department of Education proposes Pell Grant expansion

The Obama administration proposed an expansion of the Pell Grant program by $2 billion in early January to increase the number of low-income students who graduate on time.

The Pell Grant is a federal program that targets government aid toward low-income individuals who want to attend college. Recipients are determined by financial circumstances and need.

“The reason why they are trying to do this is to achieve (the Obama administration’s) long-term goal of increasing the number of Americans who have college degrees,” said Mark Kantrowitz, vice president of strategy at cappex.com, a website that helps students find college scholarships.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, a little more than half of all undergraduate students finish their bachelor’s degrees, and one-third take more than the traditional four years to do so. The longer students stay in school, the higher debt they accumulate.

Some higher education experts have criticized the Pell Grant program, citing data that Pell Grant recipients often graduate at lower rates than their peers.

The two proposed changes in Pell Grants — Pell for Accelerated Completion and On-Track Pell Bonus — would allow students to receive Pell Grants for attending school during summer session and give students who take 15 credits per semester an incentive of up to $300, respectively.

Eric Johnson, spokesperson for UNC’s Office of Scholarships and Student Aid, said the proposed expansion won’t punish students for not taking a full-time academic workload.

“This shouldn’t affect the number of students who are eligible for Pell, so the biggest change is that it will allow students to enroll during the summer using Pell Grants, which they are currently not able to do,” he said.

Johnson said 37 percent of students across the UNC system and 21 percent at UNC-Chapel Hill are eligible for Pell Grants. He added this proposal would matter more to other UNC campuses because UNC-Chapel Hill doesn’t heavily depend on federal grants.

“Federal grants are a big part of UNC-Chapel Hill student aid, but they are not the biggest part,” he said.

Kantrowitz said the proposed expansion would make the entire financial aid system more efficient.

“It’s something that we need to do instead of having a program that has increased (the number of students who graduate and who graduate on time) very sluggishly,” he said.

Kantrowitz said he would expect the proposal to gain bipartisan support.

“Two billion dollars of additional expense is not that much, actually, considering that the Pell Grant program had a budget surplus over the last couple of years,” he said.

state@dailytarheel.com