Recent back-to-back proposals by both the Bush administration and the House of Representatives would increase the amount of money students receive under the Pell Grant program.

The plan, recently passed in the House, would raise the amount students receive by $260 in the first year, taking the current maximum of $4,050 per year to $4,310.

During the same week, the President released his budget proposal for the Education Department for 2008.

The President's plan calls for an initial $550 increase per year in the Pell Grant program, eventually stepping up the maximum to $5,400 during the next five years.

According to the Department of Education's Web site, an increase of that size over five years would be the largest five-year increase ever.

Kay Lewis, the UW's director of student financial aid, is pleased at the attention an increase in Pell Grants is getting from lawmakers.

"We are in favor of increased grant funding to students — especially through the Pell Grant program," Lewis said. "So it is encouraging that both the House and the president are proposing an increase to Pell Grants."

During the 2006-07 academic year, approximately 6,450 students benefited from Pell Grants at the UW, Lewis said.

Originally designed to cover the majority of tuition costs for low-income students, the gap between the maximum benefit and tuition rates has grown significantly.

The last increase in 2003-04 raised the total allowed to its current level. According to Lewis, in-state tuition and fees were $4,968 for an undergraduate student in 2003-04.

With the Pell Grant maximum remaining steady, students have seen the cost of tuition and fees rise to $5,985 for the current academic year.

Despite the fact that the president's proposal would grant a larger increase to students than the plan passed by the House, helping to close the gap between the maximum benefit and ever-increasing tuition, Lewis does have some concerns about where those funds are coming from.

"The President's budget ... would take funds from other financial aid programs as part of the funding for the increased Pell," Lewis said. "We would prefer that the increase to Pell not come from the loss of these other aid programs."

Those other financial programs include Supplemental Education Opportunity grants (SEOGs).

The president has said that in order to cover the Pell Grant increase he would cut SEOG and other smaller programs.

According to Lewis' estimate, that would eliminate approximately $523 in benefits per year to the roughly 4,400 students that take advantage of the SEOG program.

"We need to see more grant funding for students, not just shifting funds from one grant fund to another," Lewis said.

According to the UW Office of Student Financial Aid, it has not seen an increase in questions regarding Pell Grants since the recent increase talks, but expects those questions to pick up as students look to get their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications in before the Feb. 28 deadline.

Reach reporter Shaun Moore at news@thedaily.washington.edu.