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  1. Signatures
    205 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. The President of the United States (+ 5 others)
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      • The President of the United States
      • The U.S. Senate
      • The U.S. House of Representatives
      • The Governor of NY
      • The NY State Senate
      • The NY State House
  2. Created By
    MANHATTAN COLLEGE
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

The Budget Control Act of 2011, signed into law in Aug. 2011, creates several threats to student aid funding (claims to protect the maximum Pell Grant award amount by ending Stafford subsidized loans for graduate/professional students and repayment incentives (interest rate reductions for on-time payers, for example) for all federal loans- Stafford, Perkins, PLUS.

The bill outcomes will create further financial obstacles for students to continue enrollment at higher education institutions, pursue graduate degrees, and repay their educational debt. 

Read the full-text Budget Control Act of 2011 here: http://fxn.ws/p3TKgq

Join the New York Student Aid Alliance to protect NYS aid (TAP and state-based scholarships): http://nystudentaidalliance.org/

 

Two alternative amendments to this bill are currently proposed by the Senate and the House of Representatives. Our goal is to bring awareness to this issue and advocate to secure financial aid eligibility for the greatest amount of possible students.

9/22/11: The Senate Appropriations Committee's FY 2012 Labor-H spending bill would:

- Protect the maximum $5,550 Pell Grant for award year 2012-13.

- Eliminate the interest subsidy on undergraduate federal student loans during the six-month grace period.

-All other student aid programs, including the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG), are reportedly funded at the same level as last year. Source: http://bit.ly/n771Qp

Audio webcast of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Labor-H) Appropriations Subcommittee fiscal year (FY) 2012 spending bill: http://appropriations.senate.gov/sc-labor.cfm

 

 

9/29/11: The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education spending bill would:

-Cut $2.3 billion from the Federal Pell Grant program, but maintain the maximum $5,550 Pell Grant for award year 2012-13.

- Revoke Pell eligibility for students who attend school less than half-time.

-Decrease maximum Pell eligibility to students who currently report $31K in income on the FAFSA  and as a result, automatically receive maximum federal aid eligibility. This bill would reduce that figure to $15K, which is slightly above 2010-11 poverty guidelines for a household of 2, meaning that not many students would qualify for the $5,500 maximum Pell award.

- Eliminate Pell awards to students who receive 10% of the maximum award (currently, students who are eligible for 5% are given 10% of the maximum).

- Reinstate previously excluded forms of untaxed income, including additional tax credits claimed for tax purposes, welfare benefits, earned income credit claimed for tax purposes, credit from tax paid on special fuels, untaxed social security benefits, and foreign income exclusion. 

These changes will not only impact Pell, but a student's overall financial aid package because the greater one's Expected Family Contribution, the less overall need-based aid they are eligible to receive from federal, state, and institutional funds.

Source: http://bit.ly/pca7ep

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Stop Federal Aid Cuts for 2012-13- Amend the Budget Control Act of 2011

Dear Mr. President, Senators, and Members of the House of Representatives

As a concerned student/community member of Manhattan College, I urge you to preserve funding for student aid programs as the fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget and debt reduction negotiations continue. The Budget Control Act of 2011 demonstrated a much-appreciated bipartisan commitment to the Pell Grant program, but the program still faces a $1.3 billion shortfall for FY 2012. Funding for other student aid programs also remains at risk as Congress works to further reduce the national deficit.

As budget and deficit negotiations proceed, I urge you to oppose any proposal that includes short-sighted cuts to the federal student aid programs. This could come from the Congressional Super Committee as it looks for an additional $1.5 trillion in savings. If the Super Committee fails to come up with the required savings, the automatic across-the-board cuts would also negatively impact nearly all student aid programs. At the same time, it is vital that you support student aid funding throughout the traditional FY 2012 appropriations process.

Over 14 million students benefit from federal student aid each year in the form of grants, loans, and Federal Work-Study. Student aid increases access to postsecondary education and improves graduation rates, particularly for our nation’s lowest-income students. Cuts to student aid would threaten the success of millions of students and the nation’s ability to remain competitive in the global economy.

Manhattan College is a 4-year private institution whose mission focuses on creating equal access to higher education. In the current 2011-12 academic year, 876 Manhattan College undergraduates rely on Pell to finance and continue their studies, a great challenge since the cessation of ACG and SMART grant funding as of July 1, 2011. Our students count on Congress to help support their academic endeavors and ensure their award packages are not reduced.

In addition, cutting government subsidies to federal Stafford loans for graduate/professional students negatively impacts our Business, Education, and Engineering graduate students, as well as the vast number of students who attend graduate school after earning their baccalaureate degrees from Manhattan College. Most graduate programs require students to attend full-time and many lack the means to provide merit and need-based financial aid funds. This means that most graduate students borrow hefty federal loan funds to pay for their post-baccalaureate degrees on top of the burden from their undergraduate educational debt (an average of $20,000+). Cutting subsidies for graduate/professional students and halting federal loan repayment benefits, especially in this economic climate, will result in even greater default rates and cause our alumni to start their careers and independent lives at a disadvantage a generation before never encountered.

I look forward to learning your stance on this issue and thank you for your continued support for students and families in New York and the Tri-State area.

[Your name]

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