Pell Grant Cuts Would Hurt Monmouth and Brookdale

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Brookdale Community College is located in Lincroft, NJ.
Brookdale Community College is located in Lincroft, NJ.

MIDDLETOWN – Educators and a Democratic federal legislator are worried and critical about what the proposed Republican congressional budget would mean for area students.
Representatives of both Brookdale Community College and Monmouth University have expressed deep concern, most notably about cuts to the Pell Grant Program.
“I think it’s flawed public policy,” Brookdale Community College President Maureen Murphy said this week regarding plans in the House of Representatives to freeze the spending on the federal needs-based Pell Grants to current levels for the next decade and other budget provisions that she maintained would be detrimental for numerous students at the county’s community college and elsewhere.
Paul Dement, director of Government and Community Relations for Monmouth University, said, “With about 30 percent of undergraduates being Pell Grant eligible, the impact would be significant,” for them and Monmouth University.
“Generally speaking about their budget,” said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a Democrat who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes much of Monmouth and portions of Middlesex counties, speaking of the house GOP, “everything about what they propose ends up making it harder for the students afford college.”
As drafted, Pell grants would continue to offer a maximum award of $5,775
Republicans on the national front saying these and other measures are intended as fiscal discipline and responsibility.
Existing law has the Pell grant awards increase based upon the rate of inflation.
Calls to U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican representing the 4th District, which includes Monmouth County, were not returned.
Messages left at the Washington, D.C., legislative offices of Speaker of the House John Boehner seeking comment were not returned as well.
Along with the impact on the grant program, the budget would keep interest rates for student loans at their current level, roughly at 7 to 8 percent. And that, Pallone maintained amounts to the federal government earning about $66 billion from students, often while students are still in school, impacting students’ finances and creating a drag on the overall economy.
Pallone has proposed in his co-sponsored legislation students and families would be eligible to refinance student loan debt to 2013 levels, at about 3 percent.
About 30 percent of Brookdale’s approximately 14,000 students (about 90 percent from Monmouth County) get some financial aid and the school receives about $16 million from Pell grants and another $12 million from other federal aid programs, according to Murphy.
“It’s a significant amount of money,” for the college, she noted. More importantly, given the number of students meeting the needs–based targets to get the aid, “For me it’s an indicator that the socio-economic status of our students is dropping,” with students likely finding it more difficult to meet the financial burden for education, she added.
Murphy said she appreciates the need for balancing budgets as an administrator with her own budget to oversee. “But if we’re going to want to take a long view,” she offered, “and we want to have folks really contribute to our tax base – having good jobs, sending their kids to school, paying taxes – we need to have them educated.”
She and others representing have advocating for students to federal lawmakers.
“I think it’s important for our legislators to understand that this affects the people in our community who need us the most,” she said.
The Republican budget – like the one put forth by the Obama administration really amounts “to a plan,” and the eventual spending bills that make their way through the House of Representatives “don’t necessarily reflect,” the plan, Pallone said. And there continues to be a chance that compromises can be reached on this and other debates, he said.
— By John Burton