Posts Tagged: Pell Grants

To Invest in America’s Future, Double the Pell Grant

Following is an op-ed from James T. Brett, president and CEO of  the New England Council, the region's oldest business organization ...          College affordability and access to higher education has been a topic of much discussion in Washington D.C. and throughout our region in recent years. And rightfully so. The price of higher education continues to increase, and millions of Am...

Second Chances: More Colleges Added to Program Providing Pell Grants to Prison Inmates

With the number of new high school graduates in New England projected to decline by 14% between 2017 and 2032, the region's higher education enterprises and employers cannot afford to overlook any New Englanders. That includes the many people whose lives have been derailed by the world's largest incarcerator. Last week, three New England postsecondary institutions—Boston College, the Community ...

Re-Dedicate State Resources to Higher Education

While other states are experiencing difficult budget decisions, only New Hampshire has completely de-funded student aid Today’s global economy requires a highly skilled labor force that is prepared to compete on the world stage. Studies from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Brookings Institution and the Conference Board have all identified building and maintaining a...

SHEEO’s Open Letter to the 2012 Presidential Candidates

The State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) group issued an open letter to President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney in Change Magazine’s September/October edition.In the letter, SHEEO President Paul Lingenfelter asks the next presidential candidate to sustain federal investment in research and development (R&D) and provide necessary levels of federal need-ba...

DC Shuttle: House Spending Bill Calls for Deep Ed Cuts; New Reports Question “Private” Loans, Student Visa Oversight

The FY 2013 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill adopted by a House Appropriations subcommittee panel on Wednesday would reduce funding for the U.S. Department of Education by $1.1 billion from 2012 levels and eliminate funding for the Obama administration's Race to the Top Program. It would also rescind $400 million in unspent appropriations for the Race to the Top program in 2012. In other ar...

DC Shuttle: Obama Admin Cuts Pell Grant Overpayments, New Eye on Private Student Loans

As part of the Campaign to Cut Waste, the Obama administration cut erroneous Pell Grant payments to 2.7% in 2011, the lowest it has been since 2005. White House officials estimate that reform measures saved $300 million in overpayment through the Pell Grant student aid program. The 2011 payment errors totaled $1 billion, approximately the same as the payment errors for 2010, but an increase in the...

DC Shuttle: Debt Deal Boosts Pell Grants

The debt-ceiling deal signed by President Obama last week will cut over $900 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years. Yet even in an extremely budget-conscious atmosphere, members of Congress singled out the Pell Grant program for an increase in funding to guarantee college access for low-income students. Under the terms of the new law, the Pell program would receive $10 billion in FY 20...