Cuts to Pell Grants helped lower Black college enrollment, report says

Years of inconsistent funding for the Pell Grant and state budget cuts played a role in a nearly half-million drop in the number of Black students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities over the past decade, according to a new report.

- By ALVIN BUYINZA

The report, from the University of Alabama's Education Policy Center for the Southern Education Foundation, uses data from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Data System and 47 Pell Grant End-of-Year Reports published by the Department.

Pell Grant growth once boosted college access

Pell Grant funding grew from $14.7 billion to $33.6 billion between the 2007-2008 school year and 2011-2012 school year, according to the report. The number of people awarded the federal student aid skyrocketed from 5.5 million to 9.4 million.

Colleges took advantage of the Pell Grant program and saw record-high enrollments and grant recipients walking through their doors. When Congress passed the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), an economic stimulus package to combat the Great Recession, states were forced to maintain their spending on higher education to receive their share of ARRA funds. As a result, the average Pell Grant jumped from $2,648 to $3,555.

Aftermath of the Great Recession