Pell funding, accessibility threatened.

The economic downturn has led to significant increases in enrollment in postsecondary education and training, as millions of working adults and other students seek to upgrade their skills and enhance their employment prospects. To better enable low-income individuals to take advantage of these educational opportunities, the Obama administration and Congress made a number of key changes to the federal Pell Grant program in recent years, including: increasing the maximum individual award to $5,550; allowing individuals to exempt a larger portion of their income for purposes of financial needs analysis (the "income protection allowance"); allowing dislocated workers and their children to automatically assume no expected family contribution for the purposes of financial needs analysis (the "automatic zero EFC"); and establishing “year-round” Pell awards that allowed students to receive two grants in a single academic year to facilitate faster completion times. These enhancements mean that an estimated 9 million students will be eligible to receive Pell Grants in 2011, compared to 6.2 million recipients in 2008.

However, these changes have also led to rising costs, with program expenditures more than doubling between Fiscal Years 2008-2011. Given the continued focus on spending cuts and deficit reduction on Capitol Hill, Pell has increasingly come under attack from fiscally conservative lawmakers. The Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 continuing resolution cut $4 billion from the program by eliminating year-round Pell awards, and the House FY 2012 budget included a number of additional recommendations for scaling back Pell, including reducing the maximum award, rolling back the income protection and automatic zero EFC provisions, and eliminating eligibility for less-than-half-time students. If adopted, these changes could significantly impact the ability of working adults and other low-income individuals to participate in postsecondary education and training.

Further complicating matters is the fact that, because prior year appropriations were insufficient to meet the increased demand, Congress faces an $11 billion shortfall in Pell funding heading into the FY 2012 appropriations cycle. Under the best of circumstances it would difficult for Congress to fill this gap, but in the current fiscal and political environment it is a particularly difficult challenge. In May, the House Appropriations Committee announced that it would be seeking nearly $25 billion in FY 2012 discretionary funding cuts for programs under the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services, compared to FY 2011 enacted levels. To meet this target and fill in the Pell shortfall, appropriators would need to find at least $36 billion in cuts, which could include cuts to other education and training programs under those agencies.

House and Senate Appropriations staff have made clear that they are looking for structural changes to the Pell program to not only bring down costs in FY 2012 but to reduce the overall cost of the program permanently. This means either reducing the maximum value of the grant or narrowing program eligibility, or some combination of both. National Skills Coalition has joined with other national organizations in a letter to President Obama urging him not to agree to funding cuts or harmful eligibility changes under Pell as part of the ongoing deficit reduction negotiations. Going forward, NSC urges Congress and the administration to work together to ensure that the Pell Grant program provides the maximum assistance to the broadest diversity of students possible, while also ensuring that federal investments in other key workforce development programs are not reduced as a result.

We encourage workforce development advocates to express their support for Pell by taking part in the “Save Pell Day” scheduled for July 25. During this national online day of action, participants are encouraged to use Twitter, Facebook, email and other online tools to educate lawmakers on the importance of Pell in helping low-income workers and other students to get the training they need to compete in today’s economy. To keep track of this and other workforce advocacy opportunities, subscribe to NSC’s RSS feed, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.