Introduction
Both the federal and state governments play a crucial role in helping to finance higher education. While it is true that both levels provide an important amount of aid, it seems that in today’s world the importance of funding given by the federal government has increased. The increase in the reliance on the federal government for funding is a result of the decrease in the amount of appropriations given by the states (Kretovics, 2011). Without the passage of the Higher Education Act in 1965, there would be no federal funding for higher education. The Higher Education Act of 1965 helped define the role that the federal government plays in financing higher education. It set in place …show more content…
For the purposes of this paper, I will analyze the Pell grant program by providing a brief overview of the program and then I will examine the effects that the Pell grant has had on Higher Education.
Overview of the Pell Grant
The Pell grant was not established when the Higher Education Act of 1965 was first implemented. The grant program that we know today as the Pell Grant was not established until 1972. In order for a complete overview of the Pell grant, one must look at two programs that were instrumental in its creation. Those programs were the Educational Opportunity Grant and the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant.
Educational Opportunity …show more content…
The BEOG was a dramatic shift from the EOG in that instead of indirectly providing financial aid to the students, aid was paid directly to the students (Hansen & Lampan, 1974). When the BEOG was first established, it provided each student with $1400 minus the amount of the student’s assets and potential family contribution (Hogan, 1973). The BEOG also established a federal formula that helped determine the need of the student, which in turn determined the student’s eligibility for the grant (Services, 2005). The BEOG was indeed revolutionary, but it is important to note that its implementation did not get rid of the Educational Opportunity grant. Instead the Educational Opportunity Grant was renamed the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant to coexist with the BEOG (Fuller,