Educational institutions may not receive as much aid as they originally thought, due to a revised version of the economic-stimulus bill passed by the U.S. Senate yesterday.
The Senate's bill allocates $83 billion for public schools and higher education, only about half as much as the original $150 billion approved by the House of Representatives in late January.
It passed the Senate in a 61 to 36 vote with only three Republican Senators voting in favor, including Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
The most significant reduction was dropping the $16 billion allocated toward K-12 school construction in the earlier version of the bill. An additional $3.5 billion was cut from work on higher-education facilities.
The Head Start program - which funds child development services - also saw a drastic cut, from the original $2 billion to $1 billion.
In addition, Pell Grants were slightly reduced from a $5,350 maximum award to a $5,250 maximum award - a $400 increase over the current maximum.
Overall, the Senate trimmed the cost of the bill from about $920 billion to $838 billion, which will be disbursed over the next decade.
In a town hall meeting yesterday in Fort Myers, Fla., President Barack Obama said he had hoped education would not see such large cuts, but that he would work to get that money reinstated in the future if it did.
"We put a huge emphasis on education generally and higher education," he assured the crowd.
Experts are not pleased with the reduction.
"Higher education always needs more support, especially in the form of easier and more-reasonable credit rates and Pell Grants," said Randall Miller, a history professor and political analyst from St. Joseph's University.
"Moreover, the cost of education continues to rise at a faster rate than the economy is changing, which makes financing a college education more difficult," he said. "But that is counterproductive. We need to educate more people, not fewer."
Miller said he believes Obama's promise to work on getting more higher education funding later.
"To revoke on a promise like that - made during the campaign as well as now - would be politically damaging," he said.
Bill Schilling, the director of Financial Aid, agreed that Obama is likely to work on behalf of higher-education programs later on.
"I would certainly not be surprised if the administration asks for additional funding," he said. "I know the importance that the president puts on education, and I think he would be looking in the overall scheme of things to bolster that funding when he can."
