House Democratic and Republican leaders issued dueling press releases addressing the recent decision by the appropriations conference committee to resurrect a plan to update state and local tax tables for the Federal Need Analysis Methodology.
In a minority staff press release criticizing the decision to move forward with the tax table update, House Committee on Education and the Workforce Ranking Member Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) asserted that the change would mean that an estimated 84,000 students will see their Pell Grants eliminated, and that another 1.2 million students will see their college grants or loans reduced.
"In one of its first actions after the elections, Congress has cut student aid, even though college tuition costs are as expensive as they've ever been," said Miller. "Over and over again, we've heard the President and Republican leaders say that a good education system is the best economic policy. So why would they entertain a proposal that would make it harder for even one young person to go to college?"
But the Republican chairman of the House education committee, Rep. John Boehner (Ohio), warned that the current tax tables are outdated and if not updated could deny funding to low-income students.
"Continuing to use this outdated information could mean shortchanging eligible students and deepening the Pell Grant budget shortfall," said Boehner in a competing November 22 press release. "If the administration decides to proceed with its original plans to stop the use of this outdated information, it will have my strong support."
"If the Department continues to use the 1988 tables, it's conceivable the current Pell Grant budget shortfall will be deepened by hundreds of millions of dollars - and as a result, it may be many more years before Congress can again increase the maximum Pell Grant award that goes to our nation's neediest students," Boehner said.
By Elizabeth B. Guerard
NASFAA Assistant Director for Communications
Posted November 24, 2004 on www.NASFAA.org, the Web Site of the
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
Copyright 2004. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited
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