Education Community Fighting for Dollars in 2005 Budget

Press Release, American Council on Education
April 6, 2004
http://www.acenet.edu/hena/readArticle.cfm?articleID=589

Both the Senate and the House have recently passed their 2005 budget resolutions, and are now working together to come up with a plan that will be passed by both houses. Both plans contain important resolutions that will have an impact on the educational community.

The Senate proposed increasing the maximum Pell Grant from $4,000 to $4,500 and sets up a reserve fund to make sure the program remains solvent. Both houses have introduced measures to establish a $5 billion reserve fund for use in reauthorizing the Higher Education Act.

Differences between educational allocations between houses include the House’s $80.5 billion in discretionary spending for education, training and employment programs compared to the Senate’s $81.1 billion in the same categories.