WASHINGTON — As the price of a college education keeps rising, more and more students and their families are having trouble footing the bill.
“Inflation is eating away at a lot of people's ability to pay for college,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison.
Pocan is proposing to double the size of need-based Pell Grants, a federal assistance program that began in the 1970s. Pocan received Pell Grants himself when he attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“I was able to graduate with about $4,000 in debt, which right now, people would be envious of,” Pocan said.
The maximum grant for the upcoming school year is just under $7,400. Pocan’s legislation would increase the top grant in stages until 2029, when it’d hit $14,000 and then index with inflation. President Joe Biden is in favor of increasing the grants.
“I think this comes at a really critical time, because right now, in general, I think there's a lot of distrust of higher education amongst young people. There's a lot of questioning of the value of it, and if it's for them, and one of those components is finances,” said Gabriel Velez, an assistant professor of educational policy and leadership at Marquette University. “And so, whether or not the bill is able to sort of come into fruition and what impact it has in terms of its sort of logistics of the financial support, I do think it comes at a pivotal moment, just to say, like, we are recognizing that this is an issue, and we're trying to draw attention, and we're trying to do things to further support students in being able to feel like this is a possibility for them.”
With a Republican-controlled House and a historically unproductive Congress, there is little chance the legislation will pass this year. But, Pocan said proposing it is important to keep the conversation going.
“To continue to build support, so that groups can reach out to their members of Congress, students can reach out to their members of Congress to get them to sign on, to keep the education process up,” Pocan said. “Because if you don't, and you miss a couple of years of our own education about it, you may not be in a position to pass it when the time comes.”
Per UW-Madison’s financial aid website, the cost of attendance is about $30,000 a year for Wisconsin residents, and about double that for non-residents. Though many students don’t pay the full price because of financial aid and scholarships, Velez said rising tuition costs are yet another reason raising the Federal Pell Grant is necessary.
“There's also evidence that it sort of pays for itself, because when a student who receives this then goes to college, they get a better job, they're earning more, they're paying back in taxes more than they would have, which kind of goes back and helps support it,” Velez said.
The bill would also expand eligibility for federal financial aid to so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.