Budgetary blues: as the annual higher-education budget battles heat up, new challenges ranging from the repeal of the estate tax to the Internet pose bottom line problems

Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, June, 2001 by Lionel C. Bascom

Other Bush proposals regarding public and private education funding have come under fire by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. That organization has targeted the president's 2002 budget plan, saying Bush's incentives do not go far enough to help most needy students.

"While the proposal would add $1 billion to the Pell Grant program, it does not do enough to support key student aid programs that serve low-income students," the NAICU said in April. "The administration's budget would increase the maximum Pell Grant by just $100, to $3,850," a spokesman for the group said after the president's proposed budget was made public. The president's plan fails to increase funding for other student aid programs, including Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Leveraging Educational Assistance Programs, Perkins Loans and the Federal Work Study.

"After listening to the president advocate leaving no child behind, it's extremely disappointing that his first budget does little to help the millions of students who rely on federal student aid to attend and complete the college of their choice," says David L. Warren, president of the NAICU. "America's college students expect more from this administration."

The NAICU may just be posturing, rattling an annual budgetary saber in an attempt to be heard by members of a Congress that will ultimately vote on the Bush budget sometime next fall.

"This is really just the beginning of the process," says Stephany Giesecke, director of budget and appropriations for the NAICU. "Our job is to make sure the bar is raised and to keep raising the bar," she says. "Congress really decides the dynamics and right now, the House is tending to do whatever the President sends up. The House leadership is in lockstep with the White House."

So while the rhetoric is high regarding budgets this time of the year, Giesecke says, the reality about funding educational programs is encouraging.

"We've definitely got bipartisan support for our programs," she says, noting that the successful funding campaigns have always been tied to the clout and sway wielded in the corridors of both the House and U.S. Senate. "It's not like there's anybody that says they don't like our programs. That's not the problem. The question is, when these appropriations come up in September or October, will there be enough money in the pot? We really won't know until the end of the year."

In the meantime, these budget proposals come at a time when the number of college-age students in the United States and the financial burdens they bring with them continues to grow.

In February, the congressional Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance issued a warning about the skyrocketing increase in the number of students who are reaching college age. Their numbers will cause severe strain on the already over-burdened student aid infrastructure. Academically qualified, low-income students could be shut out of higher education, without significant reinvestment in student aid programs, the committee reported.