Today’s Students Call On Congress to #DoublePell
For years, the Pell Grant has enabled socioeconomic mobility for students across the country. But it needs to be doubled to maintain its life-changing impact.
By Lauren Valles, University of California Student Association Fund the UC Vice Chair, and Raina Zhao, University of California Student Association Legislative Director at UC Berkeley
As the cost of attending public colleges continues to soar to insurmountable levels at a far greater rate than inflation, higher education has become a privilege that fewer students can afford each year. Once a safe path to the American Dream, now even attending college is unattainable for many low-income students — and for those who persevere and gain admittance, debt after graduation remains a salient concern. Increasing student aid is crucial to ensure equitable access to higher education. Specifically, it is time to double the Pell Grant, making a worthwhile investment into today’s students and removing regressive barriers to higher education.
First administered in 1973 as a result of amendments to the landmark Higher Education Act of 1965, the Pell Grant is the largest source of federal grant aid for students. Unlike other forms of federal aid like student loans, the Pell Grant does not need to be repaid, thus alleviating debt for students exhibiting the most financial need. Congress votes to increase or decrease the maximum amount of the Pell Grant during the appropriations process; while the Pell Grant is considered an entitlement program, changes to the maximum amount depends on each successive budget’s allocation of discretionary spending.
More than 7 million students receive Pell Grants nationally each year. Since its inception in 1973, Pell Grants have enabled the success of students from households with annual family incomes of $50,000 or less. The life-changing impact of Pell can be seen especially across the University of California (UC) system, where the Pell Grant gives students the support to both attend and become exceptionally high achievers at the university. Within only five years of graduation, Pell Grant recipients earn a higher median income than their families did when they first entered UC, demonstrating the program’s true potential to be an engine for economic mobility. Among UC alumni whose households were in the bottom 20 percent of income, a third have gone on to be in the top 20 percent of income levels of all graduates.
Despite the Pell Grant’s importance, the amount of aid awarded by the grant has stagnated relative to the severe increase in the cost of higher education. While the Pell Grant has seen only modest increases over the years, the cost to attend a national private college has grown by an average of 144 percent, and in-state tuition to public universities, like the UC, has increased by an average of 212 percent. In the 2017–18 academic year, only 25 percent of colleges nationally were affordable for Pell recipients, and the trend suggests that this affordability gap continues to grow. Insufficient financial aid directly and unfairly restricts a student’s educational opportunities. Additionally, many students, like undocumented or international students, are ineligible for federal aid like the Pell Grant, making inaccessibility an even more pervasive concern.
The purchasing power of the Pell has drastically fallen so that it does not as effectively help current students pay for their education. In 1975, the Pell Grant covered approximately 79 percent of college costs; today, it covers around 29 percent. For many institutions, the current maximum Pell Grant award of $6,495 does not cover tuition, much less textbooks, housing, and other living expenses. Students are commonly forced to work long hours in addition to their studies to cover school expenses, facing considerable academic stressors and an unequal college experience compared to their wealthier peers.
The current COVID-19 pandemic adds a unique and extenuating layer to existing financial burdens for students. The difficulties of the pandemic, including job loss, health concerns, and housing insecurity, have only exacerbated inequities. The students exhibiting the greatest need prior to the pandemic face even more hardship in managing college expenses amidst the numerous other challenges brought by a global health crisis. Now is an especially urgent, yet opportune time to support the students who need it most.
Students across the country have united behind the need to double the Pell Grant. This February, a coalition of students led by the University of California Student Association (UCSA) and their peers from Arizona, Oregon, Georgia, Minnesota, New York, Washington — as well as the California Community Colleges and State University systems — committed to an entire week of action to call on Congress to make college truly attainable for all. In the week’s kick off press conference, student leaders highlighted how inflation, a rising cost of attendance at universities nationwide, and the impact of COVID-19 have rendered the Pell Grant insufficient in fueling students’ pursuit of higher education.
And it’s not just students who are calling on Congress to #DoublePell. The movement to increase Pell began in earnest when The Institute of College Access and Success (TICAS) united with nonprofit partners across the country to begin the conversation for greater federal aid. Since then, vital association partners such as the California Student Aid Commission and institutional giants like the UC Office of the President have publicly expressed their support for doubling Pell, emphasizing the campaign’s obvious benefits such as greater capacity for institutions to redistribute aid, more funding for students’ basic needs, and alleviating the student loan burden. Watch UCSA’s Double the Pell Briefing on the Hill to learn more about this united effort.
For students like Joshymar Graham, a current first-year transfer student at UC Davis, a doubled Pell Grant would be especially life-changing. Pell has already enabled him to be the first in his family to earn a college degree in the near future, but a doubled Pell Grant would make it so he wouldn’t have to work full-time in order to pay for the costs of education that Pell doesn’t cover. A doubled Pell would mean that he, and millions of students like him, wouldn’t have to take on the burden of excessive student loans.
It’s clear that the issues of affordability and access already felt most by America’s most low-income students have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. It’s time for Congress to reinvest in students across the country by doubling Pell.
Join student efforts to #DoublePell by attending University of California Student Association’s national mobilizing webinar in early May. Sign our petition and learn more about UC’s campaign here. If you’re a student leader who wants to take an active role in the movement, email fundtheuc@ucsa.org. If you’re a Pell-recipient who wants to lend your voice to the fight to make college truly attainable for all, share your story here. Every voice will be immensely helpful in achieving this transformative victory.
