Bush Proposes Fake Boost for Student Aid

President Bush proposed Friday increasing the maximum federal grant for low-income college students by $100 a year for five years, a change that he said would make higher education more accessible to thousands of Americans. Speaking in a packed gymnasium at Florida Community College here, Bush also promised to restructure the government's student loan apparatus to save money that will then be used to help close a long-standing shortfall in the Pell Grant program. The White House offered no details on how those savings would be achieved, although one likely target would be the government subsidies paid to private lenders that handle student loans. The average grant is about $2,400, with the maximum being $4,050 -- a figure that advocates call inadequate because it covers only a fraction of the cost of attending even public four-year colleges. Under Bush's proposal, the maximum Pell Grant would grow to $4,550 over five years.  "Pell Grants are really important. Pell Grants make it possible for people to go to school who otherwise won't go to school," Bush said. "I think that is money really well spent," he added. Rep. George Miller (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, called the proposed increase too small. "Even President Bush knows that a $500 boost over five years is not enough -- he himself promised, in 2000, that he would raise Pell by more than twice that amount," Miller said. [more]

• PELL GRANTS: Congress should undo cut in aid to college students [more]