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Expand Pell grants for low-income students
"Will continue to work to ensure that the maximum Pell Grant award is increased for low-income students. Specifically, he will ensure that the award keeps pace with the rising cost of college inflation."
Sources: "Barack Obama and Joe Biden: Making College Affordable for Everyone"
Both stimulus and budget send dollars to Pell Grants
Updated: Monday, March 2nd, 2009 | By Angie Drobnic Holan
President Obama is a big fan of Pell Grants, a federal program that helps low-income students pay for college.
He kicked off his Pell Grant efforts by signing the stimulus bill, which sent an additional $15.6 billion to the grants and another $200 million to work-study programs. Taken together with other previously approved funding, the maximum Pell Grant per student would be $5,350 for the school year starting in 2009.
Obama's budget outline, released Feb. 26, 2009, proposes enough money to boost the maximum Pell Grant to $5,550 for 2010. In addition, his budget would require Pell Grants to receive automatic funding each year and index the grants to inflation. That indexing was a key part of his promise.
Obama still must get his budget through Congress. His proposal to expand Pell Grants gets this promise to In the Works.
Sources: Thomas, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Speaker of the House Web site, Joint Explanatory Statement: Section A , p. 65, Feb. 12, 2009 (pdf document) Office of Budget and Management, Budget Documents for Fiscal Year 2010 , accessed Feb. 26, 2009 Office of Budget and Management, Summary Tables , Table S-6, page 124, accessed Feb. 26, 2009
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