May 3, 2002 3 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – States are cutting higher education budgets even as rising college costs strain poor and middle-class families, congressional Democrats said Thursday in urging President Bush to increase federal help. The slow economic recovery has led states to trim higher education budgets and raise tuition, putting college out of reach for thousands of low- and middle-income students, according to a report issued by the Democrats.

A separate report, released Wednesday by a California think tank, said tuition at public colleges and universities is taking a bigger bite out of many families’ paychecks, outpacing financial aid and state support.

“This administration is leaving college students and children behind,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., referring to Bush’s “Leave no child behind” education plan.

States plan to cut $5.5 billion from higher education over two years, Democrats said, with 30 already making midyear cuts.

Shrinking budgets, coupled with increasing tuition and federal aid that does not keep pace with rising costs, could close the doors to college for 110,000 students, they said.

The Bush administration’s student aid budget would serve 375,000 fewer low-income students, with no increase in funds for several aid programs, Democrats said.

“You can talk about education all you want, but you have to pay for it,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.

Stacy Valentin, a senior at Western Washington State University, said she carries $17,000 in debt. “It’s essential for Congress to fund more grants over loans,” she said.

Democrats say Bush’s 2003 budget has “shortchanged” the Pell grant program, making the maximum grant about $3,900 rather than, less than lawmakers wanted.

They blamed Bush’s $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut, which he wants to expand in his 2003 budget.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget office estimates that Bush’s 2003 budget would shrink the maximum Pell grant $100. Due to inflation, it already buys about half as much as it did in 1979.

But the White House’s Office of Management and Budget blamed Congress for not putting enough money into the Pell program to offer the $4,000 maximum.

“It was Congress that shorted the Pell grant program by $1.3 billion,” said OMB spokesman Trent Duffy. “They bounced a check to 4.5 million low-income students.”

Dave Schnittger, spokesman for Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the Republican leader of the House education committee, called the Democrats’ report “an entirely disingenuous effort … to disguise the fact that they don’t have an education budget of their own and they’re not willing to step up and make the tough choices necessary to lead.”

Education Secretary Rod Paige said Bush is committed to keep college affordable by funding Pell grants, tax credits and new tax deductions for interest paid on college loans.

He said the administration is also making more students eligible for the grants.

The other report, from The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, an independent, nonprofit think tank in San Jose, Calif., said tuition at public colleges and universities took a bigger bite out of family income between 1980 and 2000. Poor families were the hardest hit, it said.

Focused on public institutions, the report found that the wealthiest families saw no change. Sending a student to a public, four-year institution remained at 2 percent of income for the richest 20 percent of families.

Those families between the top and bottom income brackets saw tuition at state schools take more of their income, though the increase wasn’t as steep as it was for the poorest Americans, the study found.

In 1980, tuition ranged from 3 percent to 6 percent of income for the middle groups. Two decades later, tuition took 5 percent to 11 percent of income, the study found.