Raising Pell Grants Is Not Enough

President Obama says that the U.S. needs to invest in education.  I agree.  If one wishes to be financially successful and live a stable lifestyle of personal independence and responsibility, a college degree is a must.  However, for millions of underclass would-be students, raising the amount of Pell Grants just isn't enough.

For those of you who are in college or who have kids in college, the realization that Pell Grants no longer cover basic tuition, let alone books, comes as no shock.  Pell Grants, even with the recent raise, haven't kept up with rising tuition costs.  This is true at even the more modest universities with tuition rates much lower than Ivy League or more prestigious schools.  Kids who haven't kept up their grades in high school (and don't qualify for scholarships) pay the price when they eventually decide to turn the tables and seriously hit the books.


Most middle class and lower class families today are in a real financial bind.  More and more families find themselves having to rely on public assistance, such as food stamps, to survive.  And if there are college students in that family, that becomes a real problem.


Why?  Because college students bear the solitary burden of work requirements in order to be eligible for food stamps.  In order for a college student to receive food stamps, he or she must either: 1) be a parent of a child under six years old and responsible for their support; 2) be enrolled in a Employment & Training Program; 3) participate in a college work study program for at least 20 hours per week; or 4) be employed or self-employed for at least 20 hours at minimum wage.


Now, most of you readers are probably saying, "What's wrong with that?"  And on the face of it, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with these requirements.  However, upon closer inspection, there's alot wrong with them.  


The original Food Stamp Act of 1964 made no such requirements.  However, within a few years it was observed that more and more students were applying for and receiving food stamps.  One gets an image of the poor, starving student living in a one room hovel and cooking on a hot plate.  Unfortunately, that was not often the case.  Many of the students receiving food stamps came from not only middle class, but the upper class where parents could well afford to feed their children while they were attending college!  In fact, this practice became so rampant that the Food Stamp Act was soon amended and these specific requirements for college students were put in place, all so the rich and wealthy couldn't get a free ride.  


On the fact of it, that seems like a practical solution.  However, there were no guidelines put in place for poverty level or any other exclusions such that college students now occupy a special class of individuals when it comes to food stamps.  And that is what needs fixing.


Today, we have rising unemployment rates, rising tuition & college fees, sky high rents and utilities.  More and more students are choosing to go to college close to home - and continue to live with their parents while attending classes.  However, while other food stamp applicants find relaxed requirements - such as waivers for working due to high unemployment rates and lack of training programs - these waivers do NOT apply to college students, regardless of their parents' financial status.  In other words, if a family falls below the poverty level and are eligible for food stamps, in many states they are waived from these work requirements in order to meet eligibility.  However, their children who are in college are still required to meet them.


That hardly seems fair.  In Kentucky, for example, there has been a waiver for enrollment in the Employment & Training Program for about a decade for most food stamp applicants - and a good thing, because there are NO such programs!  The unemployment rate is about 10.5% in Kentucky.  At the same time, universities have cut back on their federal work study programs because there are just too many students applying for them.  So only a small percentage of students who apply for work study actually get a position.  In addition, most work study positions are now limited to 10 hours per week - half of what fulfills the requirement for food stamps.   Consequently, many would-be students are putting off attending college or are forced to drop out.


But is this fair?  Is it fair to force a student to choose between eating and attending college?  Is it fair to make the requirements for food stamp eligibility impossible to meet?  Is that even constitutional?


Requiring a student or potential student to enroll in an Employment & Training Program when there are NONE offered; or to be employed for 20 hours in a state with such a high unemployment rate that students are at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to hiring; or to participate in federal work study program for 20 hours a week when there are too few positions and many are only for half the amount of hours needed - is very unfair, especially in light of the fact that non-students are NOT subject to these same requirements!


All of this is bad enough, but I've saved the best for last.  My family is well over the federal poverty line.  I am in poor health, but have no access to health insurance.  In fact, although I've worked all my life, I haven't had a job that offered health insurance since the early 80s.  When my health became so bad that I couldn't work anymore, I found I didn't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare.  Nor did I have enough work credits for Disability.  So I have NO income and have no prospects of any as my health worsens.  My 23 yr old son has been looking for work for over a year.  NO one is hiring - we live in a state with a 10.5 % unemployment rate.  He's also inquired about the Employment & Training program, but, as mentioned earlier, Kentucky doesn't have any.  (Although, as an aside, in inquiring after this program, we did find that the program in other states have mostly daytime hours, conflicting with most college class schedules!)  The university has no work study positions available, and they said fall positions don't look promising, either.  Oh, and most of them are for 10 hours, not 20, in an effort to accommodate more students.


Consequently, now that my son has registered for classes, he no longer qualifies for food stamps.  Since we have no income, we depend on food stamps for all our nutrition.  Two people receive $367 a month.  If one tries to eat a healthy diet, this isn't even adequate.  I am already malnourished.  The last 10 days or so of the month we basically starve.  But now that my son is ineligible, our food stamps are cut to $200.  I don't know that I can even live on that if it were just me.  I doubt it.  When my worker told me this, my response was that my son will not be able to go to college.  My worker said this was "ridiculous."  Really?  I understand the concept, but who is he to tell me that it's ridiculous to choose starvation or college?  I'm already in poor health and malnourished.  My son is already close to being skin and bones.


My next call was to the USDA.  There, I was told that college was a "choice" and it's my son's choice if he chooses to go to college or to eat!  When I said that, as a mother, I can't deny my son food, I was told to PUT A LOCK ON THE REFRIGERATOR so that he couldn't get to my food!!!!!  What mother would do this????  What kind of a country do we live in that someone would even suggest such a thing????

My next call was to the officials in my state, where one woman told me that Pell Grants covered tuition, books & still had enough left over for living expenses!  That is blatantly untrue.  Maybe 20 years ago that was the case, but no longer.  When I asked her what the tuition was compared to the Pell Grant received, she then told me that schools had their own grant programs to "fill in."  Really?  NO, THEY DON'T.   I called the university and was told that this woman didn't know what she was talking about.  In fact, the university said they don't even offer Perkins Loans anymore.  This was one bureaucrat who just made up what she wanted to be true, and in my opinion, represents the type that we need to get OUT of these positions.  Pretending something is true doesn't make it so and there should be no one in a government job - local, state or federal - that would outright lie or make something up to tell the public.


These laws need to be changed.  I've called my congressman, but he's only one person.  If you think this is unfair, too, or if your family is in the same position, then please call your U.S. Congressman/woman and demand this law be changed, as well.  There's strength in numbers, but if we give up and just take the abuse, then we remain victims of a society that keeps pushing the underclass under the bus.  And what really boggles my mind is that it's not even practical!  It seems to me that if the government gives out food stamps, it should be tickled that recipients are trying to better themselves so they can get off the public dole.  But these archaic requirements for students only keep them OUT OF COLLEGE, and ultimately, keep them on food stamps.  How does that even make sense?

It angers me that we are in this position because of the greed of those who take, take, and take some more - in this case, the upper classes who thought it was ok to take what belonged to the poor (food stamps) just so they could have more disposable income.   Sadly, it doesn't surprise me.  The rich have been exploiting the poor and taking advantage of handouts for as long as we've been squatting in North America.  (Subsidies to the oil companies, for example, or corporate welfare.)

And again, I agree with the basic premise that students from families who CAN afford to feed their kids while attending college should be prohibited from receiving food stamps.  That's fair.  But, for those students who live in families with little or no income, who cannot get employment, work study, or participate in an E&T Program due to no fault of their own, this is an obstacle that is not only unfair, but tragic.  


Tragic because there are so many kids who won't get a chance to go to school because their families cannot afford to feed them if they lose the food stamps.  Tragic in so many other ways, as well.  If President Obama is serious about education, then he's going to have to do much more than merely raise the Pell Grant - which still doesn't even cover basic  tuition, anyway.  He's going to have to remove these obstacles and allow students the same waivers as non-students.  I might mention that my son has been receiving food stamps until now, because his work requirements were waived.  Only his status as a student changes everything.  


SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.  If you're as outraged as I am, then please do something about it!  Call you U.S. Congressmen/women and demand a change in these punitive requirements aimed at keeping poor students from attending college.