This afternoon, by a 50-50
vote, the Senate failed to restore cuts to higher education funding or provide
increases for the student aid programs in the Fiscal Year 07 budget. The amendment,
offered by Senators Kennedy, Collins and Menendez, would have provided $6.3
billion to fund higher education and job training programs.
The Senate budget includes
$1.2 billion in cuts to higher education as proposed in the President's budget.
These cuts come on the heels of the largest cut to student aid in history, a
$12 billion cut over five years to the loan programs passed in February. In
addition the Senate budget freezes the maximum Pell Grant at $4,050 for the
fifth consecutive year. In real dollars the maximum Pell Grant in 2005 was worth
almost $300 less than the maximum grant in 2001.
Tomorrow the Senate will
vote on a Specter-Harkin amendment to restore budget cuts to higher education
as well as health programs. The amendment will restore student aid funding to
FY05 appropriated levels, however it will not address increases in college costs
that students face when financing college.
Today the Senate chose once
again to ignore the issue of college affordability facing millions of students
and parents across the country.
