When the House voted to pass the Deficit Reduction Act on
Wednesday, legislators approved a bill that reduces student loan
funding overall but also creates a new grant program providing $3.7
billion to high-achieving, low-income students over the next four
years.
The Academic Competitiveness Grant ““ a component of the
House bill, which President Bush is expected to sign into law
““ gives money to students who demonstrate sufficient
financial need and have taken “rigorous” coursework in
high school. In addition, college students pursuing a degree in
math, science or certain foreign languages will qualify for
National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART)
grants.
The Department of Education will define “rigorous”
and the secretary of education will work with the director of
national intelligence to determine which languages qualify, Steve
Forde, spokesman for the House Committee on Education, wrote in an
e-mail.
The federal grants, combined with other state funds, encourage
high school students to “prepare more seriously for
college,” said Brian Fitzgerald, executive director of the
Business Higher Education Forum, a group that will be working with
the Department of Education on the implementation of the act.
With the addition of the SMART grant, there is an incentive for
students to obtain a degree in the math, sciences or foreign
languages, he said.
Those languages crucial to national security will qualify under
the act.
The program could mean a significant increase in intervention
into education by the federal government, said Susan Dynarski,
professor of public policy at the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University.
But this is not the first time the federal government has
encouraged college students to enter certain fields of study.
The government took similar action during the Cold War to ensure
the U.S. remained competitive with Russia.
“When Russia launched Sputnik, it created a very panicked
response,” Fitzgerald said.
Congress passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958 in
order to maintain the United States’ competitiveness in math
and science.
It also provided funding for students studying Russian and
Chinese, Fitzgerald said.
“This is a path that the federal government has gone down
before,” Dynarski said.
The federal government has stated its concern to preserve the
United States’ position in an increasingly competitive global
market.
In the State of the Union address Tuesday, President Bush
introduced the initiative as part of a plan to maintain the United
States’ economic edge.
“To keep America competitive, one commitment is necessary
above all: We must continue to lead the world in human talent and
creativity,” Bush said.
He said part of this was to “give our nation’s
children a firm grounding in math and science.”
But the impact of the program is contingent upon the details and
complexity of the grants, Dynarski said.
Currently, there is a complicated application and formula for
distribution of Pell Grants, the scholarships given to students by
the federal government.
Research has shown that Pell Grants have not had a significant
impact on the number of low-income traditional students who attend
college, and many scholars attribute this to the complexity of the
application, Dynarski said.
“If that’s what this grant is based on, its going to
have the same flaws as the Pell program,” she said.
Questions have also been raised as to how the government will
define “rigorous” and whether low-income students will
have access to “rigorous” coursework.
“In an ideal world, every student would have access to
that kind of curriculum,” Fitzgerald said.
“That’s going to be a tension in the program, (because)
if you define it too narrowly, you will be hurting the students who
need it the most.”
The secretary of education will be working with school
districts, states and the educational community in order create a
fair standard for the allocation of the grants, Fitzgerald
said.