When President George W. Bush made his budget proposal for 2003,he increased money for many programs. However, the federalstudent-aid program didn’t receive a sufficient increase, highereducation officials said.
Although President Bush has received some of the highest approvalratings of any American president — due in a large part to OperationEnduring Freedom — his budget proposal provides little to helpcollege students with financial difficulties.
How will this affect students who were depending on getting moremoney from the government?
Currently, the direct student loan programs provide $50 billion inaid each year to students and parents. In addition, Pell grants pay amaximum award of $3,750 to each eligible student.
Bush’s proposal seeks to increase grants to a total of $10.9billion to help more than four million students attend college. Thisproposal will increase the amount to $4,000 per student. In addition,Bush’s administration is in the process of revising the method ofcalculating cost estimates for student loans.
Even though Bush’s education budget seeks improvement in severalareas, such as performance tests for students as well as teachertraining, it doesn’t focus many of its resources on helping collegestudents.
Tilahun Fessehai, a mathematics senior, is one of those studentswho counts on financial aid. Fessehai receives around $5,500 ingrants and loans each year. However, that money is only enough to payfor school tuition, parking, books and some bills. Fessehai alsosupports himself.
Determining how much money a student gets from financial aiddepends on how much support a student gets from his or her family.The lower the financial support a student receives, the more eligiblethe student is to receive more money.
“It’s not enough for the students, especially a student who hasn’thad any parents to support him or help him out,” Fessehai said.
Chris Collins, assistant director of financial aid, agrees thateven though the increases are welcome, they won’t be sufficient. Oneof the reasons why the $250 increase in grants will not be enough isbecause inflation has increased prices on everything from utilitiesto books.
“Costs of higher education have outpaced the ability of thefederal financial-aid programs to keep up,” he said.
William Hansen, the deputy secretary of education, said during anews conference on Feb. 4 that spending on Pell grants has more thandoubled over the past five years and the maximum award has increased$700 in the last two years.
Student loans — another method of financial aid — are notreceiving any increases. Currently, the maximum amount a student canreceive depends on his or her class standing; freshmen can receive upto $2,625 per year, sophomores up to $3,500 per year and juniors andseniors can receive up to $5,500 per year.
Collins said the reason why freshmen and sophomores receive lessmoney is because they are a higher investment risk; they might notfinish college.
In an effort to provide extra financial aid to San Diego Statestudents, the university proposed a $25 “Students Assisting Students”fee on the referendum next week.
If passed, students would pay $25 each semester to be used to fundgrants for SDSU’s low-income students.
The new grant will supplement the awards already given to SDSUstudents by federal and state governments, which are insufficient incomparison to the needs of SDSU students, said Chrys Dutton, interimdirector of financial aid.
The $25 fee each semester would generate approximately $1.6million annually. However, the fee would benefit only approximately1,562 “low-income, financially at-risk, new and continuingundergraduates” who would receive a $1,000 grant each year.
— Assistant City Editor Raven Tyson contributed to this article.
