The following op-ed originally appeared Sunday, Feb. 18 in The Patriot News in Harrisburg, Pa. The full piece appears below.
 There's good news and bad news for educators in President Bush's proposed 2008 federal budget.
Headlines about increases in Pell Grants were cause for celebration among those of us who champion access to higher education. The president's proposal to increase the maximum Pell Grant award from $4,050 to $5,400 over the next five years was music to our ears.
But once we got beyond the headlines, the proposal hit a sour note. These increases would be paid for by eliminating the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG) program, which like the Pell program awards grants to students who demonstrate exceptional financial need.
This year, 1.3 million students receive SEOG grants, which cost the government roughly $770 million. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, about 300,000 of the SEOG recipients would experience a net
benefit from the increase in Pell Grants; a million needy students would be
worse off.
At Gettysburg College, 260 of our Pell Grant recipients also receive SEOGs.
The average Pell Grant increase of $350 per student in 2008 would be offset
-- to the tune of a net loss of $1,150 -- by the elimination of the average SEOG of $1,500 per student. This is hardly news for celebration.
We don't mean to be ungrateful. The Pell Grants have languished at $4,050
since 2002, and their purchasing power has slowly declined, so we welcome
the administration's support of significant increases.
But the devil is in the details, and frankly the administration's message is
becoming increasingly murky.
U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spelling's "Commission on the Future of
Higher Education" spoke loud and clear last fall about the need to improve
access to higher education with more need-based -- as opposed to merit-based -- financial aid and the need to streamline financial aid programs.
THE NEW BUDGET does neither. While it eliminates the need-based SEOG
program, it increases aid for a new merit-based aid program for students
studying "critical" languages such as Arabic and Korean.
Robust, need-based financial aid is critical to safeguarding access to educational opportunity. We recommend that lawmakers take a long, hard look at these proposed cuts that will eliminate the means for millions of
students to pursue a higher education.
KATHERINE HALEY WILL is president of Gettysburg College and chair-elect of the Annapolis Group, an organization of independent liberal arts colleges.
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