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Tenth District Representative Donald M. Payne cast a vote today to end the funding disparity between students who attend higher-priced colleges and universities and their lower-cost counterparts. Under the Pell Grant Equity Act of 2007, the federal government will issue Pell Grant awards equally, irrespective of which college or university a student attends.
The Pell Grant Equity Act of 2007, which has received wide bipartisan support, seeks to eliminate the “tuition sensitivity” rule which punishes low-income students who attend very low cost schools by reducing the amount of Pell Grant aid they can receive. With this measure, Congress creates a temporary fix, for the 2007 – 2008 academic year, which will allow all Pell Grant eligible students to receive immediate tuition relief. As Congress continues to work on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, provisions will be made to make this improvement permanent.
The Federal Pell Grant Program awards grants, based on need, to low-income undergraduate and certain post-baccalaureate students and often serves as the backbone of students’ financial aid package. In order for a student to be eligible for this type of financial aid, their household income must not exceed $30,000 and $40,000 for independent and dependent students, respectively. In FY 2006, more than 5 million students received this type of financial aid. In fact, nearly 16,000 Pell Grant awards totaling more than $40 million went to students attending school in the NJ-10 district for the 2006 – 2007 academic year. Pell Grants not only can be used towards tuition but can also cover other costs such as books, supplies, transportation, room and board and miscellaneous personal expenses.
“While the price of receiving a post-secondary education continues to skyrocket, for many students, it is not the price of the actual tuition that makes college cost-prohibitive. It is the related education and living expenses that make a higher education financially unfeasible,” Payne stated. “The Pell Grant Equity Act of 2007 allows us to create some funding equity for tens of thousands of college bound students.”
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