College Affordability-- McCaskill Backs Year-Round Pell Grant Renewal Following Input from Missouri Families, Educators

Press Release

In her ongoing work to tackle issues of college affordability and accessibility, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is backing the Year Round Pell Grant Restoration Act to restore year-round Pell Grant resources for low-income college students to use towards summer courses--something specifically raised by several Missouri families and educators on her recent College Affordability Tour of Missouri.

"When I went on the road to hear from Missouri families and educators about what we can do to make college more affordable and accessible, what I heard was Pell Grants, Pell Grants, Pell Grants," McCaskill said. "Well I got the message. Making these resources available year-round will help our students complete their educations more quickly and help them graduate on time, with less debt--a fiscally responsible proposal that's just common sense."

Currently, students can only use Pell Grants for two semesters in an academic year. This leaves no Pell Grant funding for low-income students to use towards summer courses--money that is critical for students who want or need to take classes year round. The policy to restore year-round Pell Grants has the support of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the American Association of Community Colleges, and the Center for Law and Social Policy.

McCaskill identified the need to make Pell Grants available more than twice yearly after discussions with students, recent graduates, families, educators, and experts during a statewide college affordability tour last month.

McCaskill's discussions--including stops in St. Louis, Belton, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Cottleville, Nixa, Ashland, Cape Girardeau, and Washington, Mo.--centered on innovative, effective ways to make college more affordable and decrease the enormous amounts of loan debt that students are facing. Those goals included encouraging higher and faster graduation rates, and more resources for students who choose to dual-enroll to get ahead, enabling them to graduate sooner and cut down on the amount of loans they may need.

Following input from Missourians, McCaskill last week called for the Department of Education to reconsider allowing colleges to require student borrowers to complete personalized debt calculators as part of their college and university entrance counseling. In a letter to Secretary King, McCaskill described the difficulty counselors related to her about "entrance counseling restrictions that permit "strongly encouraging, but not requiring' student borrowers to complete the student loan calculation sheet, which provides a more personal estimation of the repayment process."

According to the Institute for College Access & Success, the average debt for a Missouri graduate of a public 4-year institution or private non-profit 4-year institution is $25,844 and the proportion of Missouri graduates from those institutions with debt is 59 percent. Missouri ranks ‎33rd in the nation in terms of how much debt students graduate with and 31st in the nation in terms of how many students graduate with debt. McCaskill, along with several of her Senate colleagues, wrote a joint letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan last year highlighting the issue of college affordability.

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