Federal Higher Education Policy in the News Today

There are a couple important stories about federal higher education policy in today's news:

Inside Higher Education is reporting on calls to increase Pell Grant amounts. From Inside Higher Education: "The numbers on reapplying for financial aid tend to be an indicator of whether students are coming back in the fall. Some higher education advocates are worried it’s a sign that as the pandemic has closed bars, restaurants and other businesses, where many students work to save money to make up the growing gap in how much of tuition Pell Grants will cover, many students aren’t able to afford to go back to classes. That’s made it more urgent to raise, and even double, the maximum $6,345 students can receive through a Pell Grant."

Inside Higher education is also reporting on a new bill introduced by congressional Democrats that would prevent conditioning federal funding on schools and campuses physically reopening. From Inside Higher Education: "Though the focus is on the Trump administration’s threats to cut off funding to K-12 schools that choose not to reopen this fall, a spokeswoman for Senator Mark Warner said a bill being introduced by the Democrat from Virginia would also make it 'crystal clear' funding cannot be taken away from higher education institutions that do not resume in-person classes... Meanwhile, as Senate Republicans and the White House continued to hash out a proposal for the next stimulus package, public colleges and universities on Monday urged Congress to give them the same tax credits private universities and for-profit institutions got in previous coronavirus packages."