'Pell Grants are the welfare of the 21st century'

What do you think about that? I guess some of the political parties want to cut Pell grants completely. I dont know if an agreement has been made, as I am a bit behind on the news. lol. but what do you think about it?

Story is below, post and run as I have to take a shower!!

http://www.care2.com/causes/pell-grants-are-the-welfare-of-the-21st-century-says-rep-rehberg.html


Negotiations about raising the federal debt ceiling are in a state of stasis and some conservative House freshmen have singled out funding for low-income college students as a target of their ire. Asserting that, as Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD.) puts it, they “really don’t understand why we’re increasing spending in a bill supposed to be cutting spending,” some House Republicans are balking at House Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan because it would appropriate $9 billion for Pell Grants for low-income college students in 2012 and another $8 billion in 2013.
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) has compared Pell Grants to “welfare” according to The Hill:
“So you can go to college on Pell Grants — maybe I should not be telling anybody this because it’s turning out to be the welfare of the 21st century,” Rehberg told Blog Talk Radio in April. “You can go to school, collect your Pell Grants, get food stamps, low-income energy assistance, Section 8 housing, and all of a sudden we find ourselves subsidizing people that don’t have to graduate from college.”
Rehberg suggests that, give students their maximum $5,550 in Pell Grants, and they’ll just go on living the easy life thanks also to food stamps, “free” housing and the like — they will just go on and be “welfare students.” It’s rhetoric that insults the reality of why students apply for, and need, Pell Grants, because they’ve worked hard in the face of huge challenges (including, like many of my students, attending poor urban high schools in crime-ridden areas) just to get to college; because they don’t want to live on food stamps or in subsidized housing; because they want to help support younger siblings and their families; because they want to be educated and make their contribution to the economy and their country.
If Congress can’t agree about how to raise the debt ceiling, student-aid programs will be, as the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, “in limbo.” If the government defaults on its debt, it will be unable to pay out benefits like Pell Grants and other student loans. Without these grants, students will be left hanging right around the time they’re getting ready to go back to school. Colleges and universities have cut-off days (August 19 at my school) to pay tuition if students want to enroll for the fall semester and not face late fees. If federal aid is delayed in the budget morass, students could face losing the chance to enroll in fall classes period — meaning that they’ll take longer to graduate and have to figure out financing for this.
There’s a trickle-down effect to cutting off federal funding for students. Colleges and universities can’t predict enrollment, leaving their own budgets in limbo. My own college is currently having some budgetary distress due to lower-than-estimated freshman enrollment. We’re a private, Jesuit, nonprofit four-year college. In tight economic times, it’s no surprise that, whatever the benefits a small college with a social justice ethos may offer, students choose to attend larger public universities, with lower tuition and other costs.
Are you a college student receiving a Pell Grant, or does your child have one? What are your options if the US defaults and you don’t receive the grant?

My mom is a recovering alcoholic, and an ex-meth user. She's finally got her life in order and is going back to school. She relys on Pell grants to give her the funds to better her life. Shoot, once she has a job she'll be paying enough in taxes over the yeras to pay back the dang grant. lol

I think Pell Grants are fantastic. You would think the government would do anything possible to try to get this country educated. Isn't education everything? Without it, where would we be?

This makes me sick, because with out my pell grants, I wouldn't be able to go to school to better my life and my daughters. If I lost my pell grant I would be forced to drop out.

I go to college using Pell Grants. I guess I've never considered them welfare because they're so encouraged and because college tuition SHOULD be adjusted for income. I look at it as an investment in the country's future, they're fronting you money to get a higher education with the expectation that having skilled workers will in turn stimulate the economy and give us an edge.

NOT having the option for low income people to go to college would be a sure fire way to widen the gap between rich and poor. America would no longer be the 'land of opportunity' where people of any background can become whatever they want.

Although...it's already becoming that way anyway, lol.

I'd be screwed without the grant though, I'd have no way to continue college.

Man, I get Pell grants...They have really helped me out.

It would suck if they stopped the program, and I don't think cutting Pell grants is gonna help. In fact, cutting college funding makes it impossible for some people to get a higher education...how does this help our nation in the long run?

Basically, the only way to get ahead in life is to be rich. Wish I could have been born into a wealthy family.

IT would seriously suck for a lot of people

Quoting Electric Rainbow:" What do you think about that? I guess some of the political parties want to cut Pell grants completely. ... [snip!] ... receiving a Pell Grant, or does your child have one? What are your options if the US defaults and you don’t receive the grant?"

there will be less people in school if they cut pell grants. Thats the only way i ever got to go to school.

It would be stupid to cut Pell Grants. If anything they should cut other things to fund more education. An educated populus is one of the better investments a country can make.

Quoting Angel Dawn:" This makes me sick, because with out my pell grants, I wouldn't be able to go to school to better my life and my daughters. If I lost my pell grant I would be forced to drop out."

Couldn't you get student loans? Most people have to use student loans eventually anyways.

The government makes me sick.

Quoting Angel Dawn:" This makes me sick, because with out my pell grants, I wouldn't be able to go to school to better my life and my daughters. If I lost my pell grant I would be forced to drop out."

Me too. I seriously hope that doesn't happen  

Quoting [[Mommy][Extraordinaire]]:" Couldn't you get student loans? Most people have to use student loans eventually anyways. The government makes me sick."

Student loans are ridiculously hard to get (unless you get the gov't un/subsidized ones.... which they'd cut too) unless you have amazing credit. So dumb. A lot of schools had payment plans though now. I know my school offers a program where you can pay your tuition monthly in super low payments

<blockquote><b>Quoting [[Mommy][Extraordinaire]]:</b>" Couldn't you get student loans? Most people have to use student loans eventually anyways. The government makes me sick."</blockquote>




Could i? Yeah probably but not that id be able to comfortably repay..

I don't have a problem with pell grants, per se, but we seriously can't afford it right now, as a nation.

It's not like someone who doesn't have the money to go to school can't get loans to help pay their way.

Quoting [[Mommy][Extraordinaire]]:" Couldn't you get student loans? Most people have to use student loans eventually anyways. The government makes me sick."

Ya...my husband didn't qualify for Pell Grants because his parents made too much, but didn't pay for his school. He took out student loans and now we're $50,000 in debt and he can't find a job. We owe $650/month for the next TEN YEARS, and both of his parents have since been laid off and we have no help.

The current 'new grad' unemployment rate is 17%, and that doesn't include people like my husband who are stuck at the same job they were at while going to school making a fraction of what they owe.

So...it's not really a good option in comparison.

Yet another example of how out of touch these smurfs are. I seriously think these asses are trying to ruin the economy just to make Obama look bad. I have gotten Pell Grants as well as student loans, I have been on a break from school, but I plan on going back in the Spring. If they do away with these things I would be out of luck, even on a payment plan. Grants help out because you don't have to pay them back, the loans are another story, and there is a limit to what you can receive. Whoever said this will widen the gap between rich or poor is absolutely right, Capitalist economy my ass, not when the majority if the people in the country aren't even given the chance to better themselves.