Eastern Michigan University: Obama's fiscal ideas concern students

[Bluebear]

"We’ll just have to say, that’s it, we can’t do this anymore, it’s too expensive." - Would that our President had the same opinion towards corporate bailouts and war.


====

Eastern Michigan Univerity junior Patrick Lawrence said he’s disappointed the year-round Pell Grant is ending.

“I was thinking about taking classes during the spring and summer to cut down on the time I have to graduate,” Lawrence said. “Without a Pell Grant, that’s definitely not going to happen.”
In a press conference Tuesday, President Obama used the cuts to Pell Grant program as an example of how they were necessary to preserve his administrations “core commitment to expanding opportunity.”

“The take-up rate on the Pell Grant program has skyrocketed,” Obama said. “The costs have gone up significantly. If we continue on this pace, sooner or later what’s going to happen is we’re just going to have to chop off eligibility. We’ll just have to say, that’s it, we can’t do this anymore, it’s too expensive.”

Instead of taking that route, the president said his administration took a scalpel to the program.
“On the summer school thing, let’s eliminate that,” Obama said. “That will save us some money, but the core functions of the program are sustained. That’s how we’re approaching all these cuts.” Duncan said although some students took advantage of the year-round grants, the numbers weren’t large enough.

http://www.easternecho.com/index.php/article/2011/02/obamas_fiscal_ideas_concern_students#comment1685