AMES, Iowa -- President Obama's fiscal year 2012 budget asked Congress to close the $5 billion gap in Pell Grant funding by eliminating the new summer Pell Grant that produced record community college enrollments in 2010. And deeper cuts to the Pell program have been proposed by some federal lawmakers -- one that would reduce the maximum award from $5,500 to $3,150.
Those reductions could have a major impact on limiting student access, particularly in rural areas, according to a new report co-authored by two Iowa State University researchers.
Linda Serra Hagedorn (right), a professor of educational leadership and policy studies (ELPS) and associate dean of the College of Human Sciences at Iowa State; and Janice Friedel, an associate professor of ELPS, were two of the five authors of the report, "Pell Grants and the Lifting of Rural America's Future," released today. Stephen Katsinas, a director and professor in the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama, directed the project, which was conducted under the auspices of the National Rural Scholars Panel of the Rural Community College Alliance.
National survey of state community college directors
For the report, Friedel, Katsinas and Mark D'Amico, an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, conducted a national survey of state community college directors' perceptions on what changes in federal Pell funding may mean to students in their states. Of the 51 surveyed, 15 agreed that eliminating last year's new summer Pell Grant funding contributed to enrollment decreases last summer at their colleges. Twenty-one agreed that the program's elimination also will lower the rate of college degree completion/success at community colleges in their state.
When surveyed on what a reduction in the maximum Pell award from $5,500 to $3,150 would mean, 39 directors agreed that it would result in lower community college enrollments.
"We've found that the Pell program has certainly made a difference in providing community college access," Friedel (right) said. "Its availability over the entire year -- including having funds for students over the summer term -- has increased participation in post-secondary education across the country."
Using the Carnegie Basic Classification, the researchers determined that community colleges across the country classified as "rural" have faced the greatest fiscal strain in the current economy. And they've found that rural community college students have the highest rate of Pell participation and incur the highest rate of debt (48 percent of the total) due to out-of-pocket expenses -- primarily for child care and transportation.
"In these economic times with reductions in funding to all colleges and universities, one of the ways schools have to make up the lost revenue is through tuition increases," Hagedorn (right) said. "So if tuition is going to go up while the Pell award goes down, we're going to see some catastrophic issues in terms of student access to college -- particularly among our institutions in rural communities."
Case study on Pell impact in Kansas
The new report includes a case study on the impact Pell Grants have had on Kansas community colleges. The researchers found that from Fall 2008 to Fall 2010, Pell dollars in Kansas grew by 98 percent from about $20.5 million to $40.4 million -- and so did enrollments by both headcount (8,246) and full-time equivalent enrollment (6,776), even though population has been declining within the state. They conclude that new Pell funding expanded Kansas rural community colleges' capacity to serve workers displaced by the recession.
Hagedorn sees the case study having applications beyond Kansas.
"We know that the Pell program is very much a part of the rural community college student's universe," she said. "While rural students only make up about a third of all community college enrollment, they incur the highest debt -- about 48 percent to be exact. So we see the importance of the Pell grants specifically on students from rural areas -- and that certainly has applications right here in Iowa."
Friedel says that impact goes beyond education, since 94 percent of those Iowans who graduate from community college programs remain in the state.