VIRGINIA " The leadership of the United States. House ofRepresentatives has proposed changes that will affect theeligibility requirements of the Federal Pell Grant Program cutting$2.3 billion from the program and potentially dropping 9,500Minnesota students from Pell eligibility.
In response to this, the Student Senate of Mesabi RangeCommunity Technical College Virginia Campus will be tablingto collect signatures in support of Pell Grant funding. This effortis part of a statewide campaign by the Minnesota State CollegeStudent Association (MSCSA) to gather petition signatures insupport the Pell Grant.
The Mesabi Range Community and Technical College Virginia CampusStudent Senate is setting up computers in the commons at theVirginia Campus from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14 throughWednesday, Nov. 16. The Student Senate is encouraging students,faculty, and staff of the college, as well as the general public tosign the petition opposing cuts to the Pell Grant. The petition isalso available online at www.mscsa.org/pellgrant .
Under the proposed cuts single students with no dependents wouldhave to make less than $6,000, down from $9,339, a year to qualifyfor the Pell Grant. This amount is less than half of the currentpoverty line. Thirty years ago the maximum Pell Grant award coveredabout three-fourths of the costs of attending a four-year publiccollege. Today, the Pell Grant covers only about one-third of thecosts, putting a large burden of paying for higher education onstudents across the country.
The proposed cuts to the Pell Grant will have a great impact onthe students of Minnesota and on students across the nation.Minnesota public two-year college students already pay the thirdhighest tuition in the country. The $2.3 billion in planned cuts tothe Pell Grant program are projected to affect 9,500 students inMinnesota and two million students nationwide. These proposedchanges would impact the amount of students two-year colleges putout into the workforce, impacting communities statewide.
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