Posted on 01/14/2005 10:34:01 AM PST by Dixie Pirate
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- To ease tuition sticker-shock, President George W. Bush wants to raise the maximum Pell Grant award by $100 each year and fix a persistent shortfall in the nation's chief college aid program.
That would put the maximum grant at $4,550 by 2010, up 12 percent from the $4,050 currently offered.
Bush is expected to make the announcement at a town hall meeting on higher education and job training at Florida Community College at Jacksonville's South Campus that begins at 1 p.m.
Advance tickets to the event were snapped up in less than two hours earlier this week, and no more are available.
Air Force One landed at Jacksonville International Airport a few minutes after noon and the president waived from the door a few minutes later before heading to his limousine for the ride to the Beach Boulevard campus.
President George W. Bush steps off Air Force One with Rep. Ander Crenshaw just after noon.
The fate of the USS John F. Kennedy is also expected to come up during the visit, and Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton said he would have a chance to discuss that issue during his ride with the president during the motorcade from the airport to FCCJ.
The president will also be joined by his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, and newly elected U.S.Sen. Mel Martinez.
The trip to Jacksonville wraps up a three-day pre-inaugural focus on education, headlined by Bush's bid to expand his No Child Left Behind overhaul plan to high schools.
The hike to the Pell Grant would put the maximum award at $4,550 in 2010 -- a 12 percent increase from the maximum $4,050 offered today. The grants are received by more than five million low-income students.
Pell Grants are the government's largest form of financial aid, helping low-income students afford college. The amounts depend on students' financial need, their cost to attend school and whether they are enrolled part-time or full-time.
Mr. President when you have increasing amounts of government money chasing a finite resource the result is HIGHER PRICES EINSTEIN.
Buying good will with tax payer dollars...it the American way...(American politicans anyway)
Buying good will with tax payer dollars...(it never works...but) it's the American way...(American politicans anyway)
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