Act Now

Help Support Further Grant
Funding for CSU Students!

The Pell Grant program promotes access to higher education by providing need-based grants to low-income undergraduate and certain post-baccalaureate students. As the most need-focused federal student aid program, a strong Pell Grant program is essential to closing the gap in college enrollment and completion that exists between low-income students and their more affluent peers.  www.ed.gov/programs/fpg/index.html

Send a letter to your representative or senator about supporting Pell Grants.

The Pell Grant program has been vital to ensuring access for many of our students.    During 2005-06, over 116,000 CSU students – more than a quarter of system enrollees – received Pell Grants.  

While costs of college attendance have risen in recent years, the maximum Pell Grant was last increased four years ago. 

The House and Senate committees responsible for education funding have drafted different proposals with regard to Pell for the coming year. The House committee version of this year’s education funding bill (HR 5647) contains a $100 increase in the maximum Pell Grant, to $4150. The Senate committee’s bill (S 3708) proposes no increase. 

Increased Pell Grant funding is a top federal priority for the entire CSU system.  See www.calstate.edu/federalrelations/policy.shtml. Chancellor Charles B. Reed, the CSU Board of Trustees and the presidents of all 23 CSU campuses strongly support increased Pell Grant funding, and the system is urging members of the 109th Congress to adopt the House’s proposed level of funding in final legislation this year. 

The Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a blue ribbon panel charged with making recommendations on federal higher education policy, recently recommended significantly increasing the purchasing power of the Pell Grant. See www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/hiedfuture/reports/pre-pub-report.pdf.