State Legislature Adjournments
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Without getting into all of the mumbo-jumbo, the most
important take away from release of the House Budget Committee's proposal,
entitled A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America, is that it seeks to
cut $877 billion in non-Defense Domestic spending over 10 years, and once again
includes language which would seek to freeze the maximum Federal Pell Grant
award at the FY2016 level for the next 10 years. Key excerpts from the
documents include:
• Washington needs to stop shoveling more money at the problem of rising tuition in higher education. It only encourages colleges and universities to be less frugal with public dollars and makes hiking prices easier, because they know more federal support for students will continue. Washington also must begin accounting for the market risk involved in lending. Current accounting practices suggest effectively unlimited borrowing is profitable for the government. This budget envisions a sustainable higher education system in which no student has to choose between crippling student loan debt and reaching their highest potential.
• A major step to achieving this goal is to make the Pell Grant program sustainable. After years of rising award levels, the program will again face a shortfall in fiscal year 2022. Instead of confronting the program’s cost drivers, previous Congresses increasingly relied on mandatory funding to make up for discretionary funding shortfalls.
• The Department of Education, for example, attributes 14 percent of Pell Grant program growth between 2008 and 2011 to legislative expansions to the needs-analysis formula. It attributes 25 percent of recent program growth to the $619 increase in the maximum award provided for in the stimulus bill that took effect in the 2009-10 academic year. This budget prioritizes aide for those who need the most help. Reforms must be done for the program to continue serving students in need.
• A well-educated workforce is a driver of strong economic growth and is a national priority. In recent years, the primary approach for greater educational opportunity has consisted of creating additional federal programs and spending more money. While pursued with the best of intentions, this approach has stripped local entities of the opportunity to make decisions about how their educational systems and programs will be implemented, managed, and measured. Higher achievement — that is, better outcomes for students — remains the goal. Higher spending, however, has not led to higher achievement.
