Hundreds of thousands of community university students run the risk of losing financial assistance under the “great beautiful bill” proposal, which would harden the eligibility requirements for Pell subsidies.
It would be required that students register full time to maintain eligibility for subsidized subsidies by the federal government that serve as a financial lifeguard for many low -income students to media.
The bill would increase the number of credit hours that students must take each semester of 12 to 15 and could tighten those who work, parents, suffer financial difficulties or in another way to find their course, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.
More than 10 million people are registered in community schools throughout the United States. Students attending four -year -old universities can also request Pell subsidies, but community schools are often a gateway to the higher education pipe for low -income students to media.
“I have no other options,” said Lakina Mabins, 41, a five -year -old mother who worked two jobs before being Valledican last month in Kennedy King College in Chicago. “I couldn’t get a loan if I wanted to because you have to have a good loan.”
Students can receive between $ 740 and $ 7,395 a year from the Pell Grant program, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.
It costs $ 4,050 a year on average attending a community university, while the average registration of four years in the state in a public university is $ 11,610 a year, the association said.
The strictest restrictions for the eligibility of Pell Grant are part of a budget bill of Congress advanced by Republicans and aimed at reducing taxes and government spending.
The Republicans of the House of Representatives approved their version of the bill in May, and is now being considered by the Senate.
The student Maria Báez, who attends the Community College of Philadelphia, said she would probably have to leave the school if the bill becomes law because she could not afford it.
She said she received around $ 3,600 through the Pell subsidy program last semester.
“I don’t even have an support plan,” said Báez, 41, who wants to own a small marketing business one day. “But I want them to try my education to have a career.”
Hundreds of thousands of students could run the risk of losing their subsidies if the One Big Beautiful Bill is approved, said Martha Parham, spokesman for the American Association of Community Colleges.
Many students cannot attend university full time because they have other responsibilities, he said.
“Community schools are the entrance ramp to the middle class,” said Parham, but costs can represent a strong barrier.
The first subsidies were granted in 1973; The program then bore the name of the late Senator Claiborne Pell, Dr.i.
The great bill would also eliminate subsidized federal loans, which would force university borrowers to accumulate more debt.
“It will be extremely difficult for people to get out of debt to these changes,” Astra Taylor, co -founder of collective debt, an organization that helps people fight against debt, told CNBC.
Senator Bill Cassidy, R-LA., President of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, Labor and Pensions Committee, which plays a key role in writing the version of the Senate’s bill, was not available to comment this week, said his office.
Cassidy has said that all the big bill would save approximately $ 300 billion in government expenses and raise the load to taxpayers who subsidize the loan payments of university graduates.
But the student Michael Weaver, 34, who attends Stanly Community College in Albemarle, North Carolina, in a Pell subsidy, said that part of the appeal to attend a two -year -old university is to take courses at his own pace.
“It is a bit exaggerated for most students, and to be honest, most students who receive the subsidy are working people who only have the option of attending part -time school,” said Weaver.
Mabins, who plans to attend the National University of Louis in the center of Chicago this fall, is considered a low -income student because he lives in public homes and is registered in the supplementary nutritional assistance program, commonly known as food coupons.
“The government loves me out of help, but they are creating more debts and makes it difficult for me to improve,” he said. “I have goals, and in the next five years, I see myself with a mastery and working in my professional field.”
