Low-income Georgia students could pay the price of Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

But critics warn the roughly $350 billion in cuts to higher education funding will cost students who need it most.

“These proposals would disproportionately hurt students from low- and middle-income families, without a doubt,” said Sara Partridge, a higher education policy researcher at the Center for American Progress.

The impacts could be especially pronounced in Georgia. While the state leads the country in merit-based funding via the HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships, it ranks near the very bottom in need-based financial aid. That makes many college hopefuls in Georgia dependent on federal money.

“We have seen over the years that even modest adjustments to student aid programs, such as the HOPE scholarship, have real impacts on student enrollments and retention, so major cuts to Pell grants or federal student loan programs would have significant effects on the number of students going to college and completing degrees,” Tim Renick, executive director of the National Institute for Student Success, said in an email.

On Tuesday, the White House said the bill would “implement critical reforms to Pell Grants to make sure they prioritize students who truly need financial assistance while promoting completion.”

Georgia has a higher percentage (38.7% in the 2022-23 academic year) of Pell recipients than the national average. If the provision is enacted, more than 180,000 students in Georgia — the equivalent of about 1 in 60 Georgians — would see their Pell Grant funding reduced or eliminated entirely, according to the Center for American Progress, estimating that 44% of Pell recipients nationally would see reductions of nearly $1,500 annually. Students can receive more than $7,000 from Pell per year. But that’s rarely enough to cover the full cost of college, and Pell recipients often turn to loans to fill the gap.

Created in 1972, the Pell Grant program helps millions of students afford college every year. Nearly 90% of recipients come from families with incomes at or below $40,000, and nearly 75% work while enrolled, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.

The “big beautiful bill” would increase the number of credits a student must take to qualify for Pell funding, likely meaning they’d need to take an additional class. Experts say that’s something nontraditional students, many of whom attend community colleges or trade schools, often can’t do.

“This really impacts the working families who are becoming more the norm,” said Emmanual Guillory of the American Council on Education. “They’re going to school part time, and the only load that they can carry is two classes while taking care of their children, while working late hours.”

Partridge said the provision would take money out of a student’s pockets. “It would either force them to take out more loans or to work fewer hours and to make less money,” she said.

The legislation could make loans costlier, in part by eliminating federally subsidized loans. Currently, qualifying students receive loans that don’t accrue interest while the student is enrolled. But the pending legislation would end that subsidization, which the National College Attainment Network estimates would increase an undergraduate’s student debt by $6,000.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

Allen — whose statement did not address Pell Grants — said the bill would ensure students can repay their loans “by streamlining student loan options and simplifying student loan repayment.” That simplification means curtailing the amount of money students can borrow and eliminating many of the currently available loan programs.

Between caps on federal loans and reductions to Pell Grants, many fear students will turn to a private loan market that offers fewer protections for borrowers.

Ashley Young of the Georgia Budget Policy Institute would like to see the state make bigger investments in its public universities. Deeper investments could be especially important if the bill becomes law and leaves less federal aid for college hopefuls. “Not borrowing a lot of money could obviously be helpful. But that doesn’t mean that college is going to be more affordable,” said Young.

Credit: Contributed

Credit: Contributed

“What I think is going to happen,” Young said, “because college is not going to get more affordable, is that students are just not going to go.”