Jessica Kelly | Staff Writer
kellyj4@imail.losrios.edu
More high school graduates may be considering postponing college because it has become too expensive. Those already enrolled in colleges or universities are more than likely under some form of financial hardship because of school expenses.
President Obama plans to alleviate some of the financial burden with measures to increase student aid, included in the budget proposal. Obama plans to cut out lender subsidies, which would increase the average Pell Grant to $3,531 per student and allow up to 27,547 more California students to receive the grants.
Eric Lotke, the public representative for Campaign for America’s Future, explained in simple terms that a subsidy is money that the government gives the bank so that they may approve students for loans to go to school.
“The Federal Government is subsidizing students instead of banks,” Lotke said. Meaning funds previously appropriated to lenders now go to students directly.
The Campaign for America’s Future Web siteclaims that in addition to redirecting the subsidies, certain programs, specifically the FEEL program, will be phased out, and other programs, like the Direct Loan, Perkins Loan, and especially Pell Grants, will be expanded.
According to the Web site from the 2000-01 to 2007-08 school years, the cost of a public four-year college rose 37 percent, and another 9 percent in the year following.
The Web site also says that Pell Grants were originally designed to cover 80 percent of college costs, but currently only cover about 30 percent. With the new budget plan, Pell grants will rise 1 percent every year with inflation.
To City College students planning to transfer, the sight of these statistics may be enough to send them running and screaming in the other direction.
But the new budget is designed to aid more families with the hope that more students may go to college, according to Robert Borosage, the Campaign for America’s Future co-director.
“Family incomes and college grants haven’t kept pace with soaring tuition costs,” Borosage said. “No student should be priced out of the college they need to succeed in the modern economy.”
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