LAT: Bush Budget Boosts Student Aid (but Dems skeptical re. Pell promise)

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush Budget Boosts Student Aid
By Edwin Chen, Times Staff Writer


JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — President Bush said today that his new budget would raise the maximum federal grant given to low-income college students by $100 annually over the next five years, a $15 billion proposal that would raise the annual assistance in the program to $4,550 a year — still short of the promised increases.

The president also said that the budget he will submit Feb. 7 would — over the next decade — close a $4.3-billion shortfall in the program, which provides the Pell grants....

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But the absence of details drew cautionary words from congressional Democrats....

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"We've been down this road before," (Senator Edward) Kennedy said. "President Bush has walked away from all his promises to raise Pell grants since his first year in office."...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-011405bush_lat,0,6566545.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Watch what they do, not what they say

[Anakin Skywalker]

2. Wow! A Whole $100!

PRAISE DA LAWD! It be a miracle brought to us undeservin' sheeps by His Holiness Son of God George W. Bush!

[theoceansnerves]

3. oh my god.

this is a fucking slap in the face! $100 a year? $100 will barely buy one math textbook! i'm so fucking sick of this shit!

[rockedthevoteinMA]

4. I doubt this propaganda attempt... if this is so, why did I get this email

Do you, or someone you're close to, struggle to pay for college? Are you discouraged that the tuition checks you write go up every year? Do you think an affordable college education is an important part of the American dream? Are you angry that the right wing is making cuts to college financial aid at the same time it's working to extend tax cuts to millionaires?

If your answer is YES to any of these questions, please share your story with us.

http://www.ourfuture.org/RealEducationStories.cfm

We want to take your story -- and the stories of other parents and students -- straight to the politicians who are considering additional cuts. We want to prevent them from simply approving cuts without having to deal with the people whose lives they're impacting. Finally, we want to take stories directly to the media to make it even harder for politicians to duck the consequences of putting millionaires before students.

Please share your story today and put a real face on the decisions these politicians are making:

http://www.ourfuture.org/RealEducationStories.cfm

Just before Christmas, the Bush administration snuck through $300 million in cuts to college financial aid.<1> These cuts eliminated Pell Grants completely for nearly 100,000 students, and partially cut grants for over 1 million more.<2> The cuts are scheduled to take effect this fall -- at the start of the 2005-2006 school-year -- but already there are efforts mounting in the Congress to overturn them.

Your stories will energize and embolden the campaign to eliminate these cuts. By exposing the real-world impacts of college aid cuts, your stories will raise the political costs for any politician who continues to support them. Politicians will have to face the people whose aid they propose to cut -- and the media and public will be able to watch as they make their decisions.

So please share your story today. Let us know how important a college education is to you and how cuts to financial assistance would impact you or people close to you - whether it's increased loan and debt burden, more time spent working and less studying, dropping a class, or taking more out of your nest egg to pay for your child's education. Tell us your story so that we can amplify it for the media and politicians and pressure decision-makers to do the right thing.

http://www.ourfuture.org/RealEducationStories.cfm

Thank you in advance for getting out the real stories behind college aid cuts.

[theoceansnerves]

5. the cuts were real

they recalculated the formula applied to parents' tax returns for granting aid to their children. lots of people will lose or have their pell grants cut.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

7. Sorry, what I meant is this title

"Bush Budget Boosts Student Aid" is a bunch of bullshit. I have seen my aid amount drop significantly over the past four sememsters. (sorry if I wasn't clear).

[theoceansnerves]

8. yep

also two points. one, this is a proposal, who's to say it will actually make it in the budget? two, they're planning (paraphrasing) "cuts to the adminstrative side of student loan programs" which from this blatantly lying president probably means cuts to the loan programs themselves.

[central scrutinizer]

6. big fucking deal

$100 won't buy even one textbook these days. Pell Grants are WAY behind the inflation in tuition.

[tyne]

9. crapola

Bush is on the first leg of his SS tour. He's just trying to get in their pants...make 'em feel good about him...so they'll buy his magnificant plan. How stupid do they think students are? Um..well..

Tyne

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Welcome to DU, tyne!