Kids First

The House’s plan to spend $6 billion on higher education modernization. The Senate had rejected that idea earlier in the week. Senators also had turned down a House plan to spend $14 billion for K-12 construction.


Education lobbyist have said that the final number for modernization could go as high as $9 billion, with $6 billion for K-12 and $3 billion for higher education.



In addition, the final package includes new funding for pipeline programs such as Head Start, Title I and special education.

Job traning

In this economic climate more displaced workers are looking to be retrained and find a new career path.

President Obama allocated $4 Billion for adult job training and dislocated worker job training, intended to help laid-off workers find new employment in similar or new industries.

Funding includes money to help colleges offer career training programs including community college courses.

Commuters included

The recent increase in Pell grants will help many students with their college expense's.

And now purchasing a computer for college now qualifies as an expense for tax-exempt 529 college saving plan.

Obama does it alone

Preisdent Obama proposes to index the grant to inflation plus 1 percent, turning college aid into yet another entitlement program that the federal government has to fund and increase every year, similar to Medicaid and Medicare.

It is rarely good policy to remove spending decisions from the legislative body. It may be that increasing Pell grants every year is a sound policy; if so, Congress should feel compelled to do so with an annual vote.

Work Study Increase

College students look forward to work study jobs and President Obama made room for improvement.

The federal work-study program gets an additional $200 million, enough to pay for approximately 130,000 new work-study jobs averaging 1,500 per job per year.

Simone Speaks

Quinnnipiac University student Simone Elliott, talks about President Obama decision to increase the Pell Grant for college bound students.

High Anxiety

Recent reports state that Virginia Tech perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho suffered with an severe anxiety disorder named selective mutism. However,area student shares her thoughts on the incident that changed college campuses forever.

College accessibility

Research shows that only 65 percent of students starting at four-year colleges and 38 percent of students starting at two-year colleges earn a degree within six years.

The President's Budget includes a five-year, $2.5 billion fund to improve college access and help America's colleges and universities graduate more students. The fund will identify, test, and promote what works in boosting college enrollment and persistence.

A drop in grants

The value of Pell Grants have fallen from 77 percent of the cost of attending a public university to 33 percent over the past three decades. The ARRA invested $17 billion, making it possible to increase Pell by $619 for 7 million students.

But these funding increases are only temporary, and without additional resources the value of the maximum Pell Grant will fall by $1,400 in 2011. President Obama is committed to a strong, reliable Pell Grant program. He will make Pell an entitlement, provide $116 billion over the next decade to prevent any drop in the size of Pell Grants, ensure that they continues to grow faster than inflation, and eliminate the frequent budget shortfalls that have plagued the program.

Stimulus stimulates students

With a stroke of a pen President Obama provides affordable education to more students. His stimulus bill increases the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $5,350 in 2009 and 5,550 in 2010.