An important consideration for many students is
their ability to pay for higher education. Most students rely on a
combination of loans, grants and scholarships to make it through
the semester. While loans are generally the largest part of a
package, grants and scholarships are the best way to pay for school
since they never need to be repaid.

UMB gets a noticeable chunk of student tuition and fees covered by
the Pell Grant. When originally conceived, it was designed to cover
most of the costs of college for low-income students and give a
boost to those in the middle class who might have trouble covering
costs.

In the current school year, the maximum Pell Grant is $5,500. That
amount by itself covers nearly half the cost of tuition and fees
for a student taking twelve credits a semester for a full year.
Combine that with other grants and various forms of state and
federal aid, and a low-income student can just about cover the
costs of college and general living expenses.

According to Judy Keyes, the Director of Financial Aid at UMB, the
need for Pell Grants has grown noticeably in the past two years. In
the 2009-2010 academic year, 4065 students received a Pell Grant
award, with an average award of approximately $3,727. For the
2010-2011 academic year those numbers grew to 4647 students with an
average grant of $3,899.

Right now, the Republican Party wants to slash Pell Grant awards.
While they refuse raising revenue by taxing those who have more
spare money than they know what to do with, they want to reduce the
money millions of Americans need to pay for college.

The Republican argument is that the Pell Grant is an entitlement
that is exploding the cost of government. They argue that this
forces businesses to reduce profits, meaning fewer jobs created and
consequently a reduced tax base. This is wrong on three levels.
One, any jobs created are a business investment, an expense that is
already tax-deductible and thus not subject to Federal corporate
tax rates. Two, the savings gained by cutting the program would not
equal even the cost of three days of current combat operations
overseas. Three, the Pell Grant is an investment that allows
Americans to improve their circumstances. Sometimes investments pay
off, sometimes they don’t; but the Pell Grant has helped millions
of Americans get their college degrees, a number of whom could not
otherwise afford to do so. College degrees have been shown
historically to improve a person’s average earnings, and higher
personal income means higher income tax revenue. This is why the
Pell Grant is a useful investment, with results even a Tea Party
member should love.