WASHINGTON — Despite high school graduation rates being at a record high of 82.1 percent and with rising numbers of minority students heading to college, President Barack Obama’s proposed fiscal 2017 budget freezes funding for most higher education and student aid programs that serve low-income and minority students, according to a budget analysis released Thursday on Capitol Hill.
“We are deeply disappointed the budget freezes funding for key foundational education programs,” said Makese Motley, president of the Committee for Education Funding, or CEF, a coalition of education associations that released the analysis titled “Education Matters: Investing in America’s Future.”
The analysis found that funding would be frozen for several financial aid and college access programs, such as the federal TRIO and GEAR UP programs, as well as aid for historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions.
Funding would also be frozen for the federal Work Study program at $989.7 million, the discretionary funded portion of Pell Grants at $22.5 billion, and Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, known as SEOG, at $16.7 million as well as the TRIO and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program, or GEAR UP, initiatives at $900 million and $322.8 million, respectively.
Child Care Access Means Parents in School, or CCAMPIS, a competitive grant program that provides campus-based child care to Pell Grant-eligible college students, also remains flat at $15.1 million.
The president’s budget proposal would provide sufficient discretionary money to maintain the Pell Grant base award of $4,860 and, with the mandatory add-on funds and statutory inflation adjustment, would increase the maximum grant for the 2017-18 academic year by $120 to $5,935.
While higher education spending overall would increase by $207 million, or 6.8 percent, according to the analysis, the budget reflects the administration’s continued emphasis on competitive grant-funding.
