iPalimpsest

During the presidential debates the pell grants came up a number of times.

In the third debate Bush said, "Got four more years, I've got more to do to continue to raise standards, to continue to reward teachers and school districts that are working, to emphasize math and science in the classrooms, to continue to expand Pell Grants to make sure that people have an opportunity to start their career with a college diploma. "

Later in the same debate Bush says, "Let me start with the Pell Grants. In his last litany of misstatements. He said we cut Pell Grants. We've increased Pell Grants by a million students. That's a fact."

Kerry responds, "But you know why the Pell Grants have gone up in their numbers? Because more people qualify for them because they don't have money. But they're not getting the $5,100 the president promised them. They're getting less money. We have more people who qualify. That's not what we want. "

From a NY Times article from July 18, 2003, "The figures cited in the report made clear, however, that the new formula would trim the government's primary award program, the Pell grant, by $270 million once it takes effect in the 2004-5 academic year. That amount, financial aid experts said, probably means that hundreds of thousands of students will end up getting smaller Pell grants, not counting the 84,000 who it is estimated will no longer qualify."

Sure enough, from a Nov. 22, 2004 article in the NY Times, " Nearly 100,000 more students may lose their federal grants entirely, as Congress considers legislation that could place more of the financial burden for college on students and their families... Brian K. Fitzgerald, director of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, which Congress created to advise it on student aid, estimated that the $300 million the administration hopes to save in the coming year will very likely mean that more than 90,000 students, largely among those whose parents earn $35,000 to $40,000 a year, would lose their Pell grants."

The NY Times goes on to say, "the recent economic woes of students and parents who might not have been eligible for help in the past, means that the government spent more than $13 billion on Pell grants in 2004, up from about $10 billion in 2001, department statistics show."

Exactly what Kerry said. Doesn't sound like a "litany of misstatements" to me.