Black colleges and universities got a big win in the new federal budget: a major expansion of the Pell Grants used by thousands of their students.
The bill expands Pell Grants for the nation’s low-income college students by providing the help for three semesters instead of just two per calendar year.
About 1 million students nationwide could benefit from the average $1,650 in additional grant money in the 2017-18 academic year. The year-round restoration will run the government about $2 billion a year, education experts say.
About 8 million students receive Pell funding, which helps them attend two-year and four year colleges and universities.
The change, contained in the bill that keeps the government running through Sept. 30, will be especially helpful to students attending the nation’s historically black colleges and universities. About 70 percent of the nearly 300,000 students who attend the country’s 100-plus HBCUs are Pell Grant recipients.
More than 70 HBCU presidents had pressed congressional Republican leaders and Trump administration officials about restoring year-round Pell during a gathering in Washington in February organized by Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
Michael Lomax, president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund, called the return of the year-round grant a key win for black colleges.
“UNCF has long fought for restoration of summer Pell Grants and increasing the maximum award, and we applaud Congress for making this a reality for HBCU students who rely on these critical funds,” Lomax said.
For Walker, though, the victory was bittersweet. His district includes North Carolina A&T State University, and Scott represents a state with eight public and private two and four-year HBCU’s, including South Carolina State University and Benedict College.
Walker and Scott had sent a letter to the House of Representatives and Senate Appropriation committees last month outlining the importance of year-round Pell to black college students.
“During a recent congressional fly-in of HBCU presidents and chancellors, year-round Pell garnered nearly unanimous support of those in attendance,” Walker and Scott wrote.
But Walker, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee, voted against the $1 trillion spending bill that President Donald Trump signed into law Friday to avert a government shutdown, blasting it as “pay dirt for progressive priorities.”
Sens. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., the chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, didn’t need much convincing on the Pell expansion.