House Approves Pell Grant Raise

After a half-decade of stagnation, the Pell Grant—a government-sponsored form of financial aid benefiting 700 low-income Harvard undergraduates—is poised for an increase.

The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to raise the maximum Pell Grant by $260, or 6 percent. Yesterday, President Bush announced a budget calling for an increase of $550, which would boost the grant to a maximum of $4,600 per year.

The director of financial aid for the College, Sally C. Donahue, welcomed the move to increase federal funding for needy students, citing a lack of action in Washington over the last four years.

“It’s terrific to see at the very beginning of these budget discussions that the bar has been set relatively high on such a critically important issue,” Donahue said in an interview yesterday.

But she also noted that thanks to Harvard’s own need-based scholarship program, effects of any federal grant increase would be felt less here than at some other universities.

“For students at institutions throughout the country that don’t have significant institutional resources, this is even more important,” she said.

Democrats were quick to cast the potential Pell Grant increase as an early prize of their newfound control on Capitol Hill.

“I definitely think that the fact that this is coming up now is a product of the Democratic control of Congress,” said Brigit M. Helgen ’08, president of the Harvard College Democrats. “It really does show how we are getting back to real issues that affect people’s lives.”

The Harvard Republican Club did not return a request for comment.

It remains unclear how an increase in the Pell Grant would be funded. Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education, said yesterday that it was “quite possible” that “individual students could be less well off” if supplemental aid programs are cut as a result of an increase in the Pell Grant.

The bill passed in the House this week now moves to the Senate, where Democrats have a slim 51-49 majority. Wednesday’s vote showed glimmers of bipartisanship—229 Democrats voted for the bill along with 57 Republicans. Two Democrats and 138 Republicans voted against it.

And Sen. Edward M. Kennedy ’54-’56 (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, issued a statement saying the reframing of the Pell Grant debate “shows how a Democratic Congress is changing the nation’s priorities.”

“It strikes me that there is evidence that there is bipartisan support for an increase in the Pell Grant,” Donahue said in an interview. “It’s a good sign and I will certainly watch the continuing discussions carefully.”

—Material from The Associated Press was used in this story.

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.