Since President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on February 17, 2009, lots of money is going out from the Feds (with taxpayers fronting the bill, of course) to stimulate the economy.
But will it trickle down to college campuses?
A big chunk of the money has been set aside for improving education. Although some of the funds will go more directly to students than others, the general consensus in the higher learning community is that Education came out a winner in the deal.
Pell Grants, the federal funds directed to lower-income students to help pay for college, are the most visible and effective beneficiaries of the stimulus package. The grant program stands to receive $17 billion to increase the maximum grant per student by $500 to $4,860, and to cover the Pell Grant shortfall for the current crop of students.
Grant applicants with higher family incomes, possibly up to $55,000, will now be eligible for Pells and the additional cash will make college possible for close to a million students in the coming year.
To see if you qualify, fill out your FAFSA form ASAP.
But that’s not all. It looks like other stimulus funds will positively impact the quality of education in America. Check this out:
- More than $3 billion goes to support job training initiatives. This includes money for community colleges (which serve over half of the undergraduate population in the US) and other public and private job training services.
- $200 million will go to bolster the federal work study program.
- $18 billion will be funneled to schools to support research and development.
- The Recovery Act switches the existing Hope Tax Credit with a $2,500, a 40% refundable American Opportunity Tax Credit, and makes textbooks eligible education expenses on your, or your parents’, tax return. That makes for lots of happiness come next April 15th.
- Long live broadband:
- The $4.7 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) at the Department of Commerce is designed to provide new jobs as well as healthcare, education, and public safety benefits by making broadband access in “unserved” and “underserved” areas more feasible, affordable and speedy.
- The program is supposed to “provide broadband education, awareness, training, access, equipment, and support to … schools, libraries, medical and healthcare providers, community colleges and other institutions of higher education, and other community support organizations and entities to facilitate greater use of broadband service by or through these organizations.”
- A minimum of $200 million in BTOP grants has to go to improving public computer center capacity, including at community colleges and public libraries.
- The US Department of Agriculture will be handling a $2.5 billion Distance Learning, Telemedicine and Broadband Program. It’ll provide grants, loans, and loan guarantees for broadband infrastructure, mostly for remote areas that aren’t currently served by broadband.
- Public higher educational institutions stand to receive $39 billion for renovations or repair of facilities.
- Two Recovery Act items are aimed at tax-exempt public universities that will enable them to borrow much need funds more easily, hopefully thus reducing the need to raise tuitions to cover mounting education costs.
The President has talked about investing in the country’s future. Good thing Congress listened to the voters and pulled together to fund some major programs that should quickly disburse all of the funds by 2010.