By Milton Kirby | Washington, DC | September 2, 2025
On the Fourth of July, as fireworks lit the sky, President Trump signed a sweeping education bill that could dim the futures of millions of American students. Buried in its pages are changes to the Pell Grant program — a 50-year lifeline for students from low-income families.
Every year, more than seven million students rely on Pell Grants to help cover tuition, housing, books, and food. For many, Pell is the difference between walking onto a college campus or walking away from the dream of higher education. Now, with cuts enacted, that dream is under threat — and no group feels the pressure more than the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
What the Law Changes
The new law rewrites parts of Pell eligibility starting July 1, 2026. Some changes expand access; others tighten the belt.
- Aid overlap: Students who receive other grants — state aid, institutional scholarships, or private awards — that fully cover the cost of attendance will lose Pell eligibility. That means “full-ride” athletes, many of them from low-income families, will miss out on support for everyday living costs.
- Income and assets: Students with a Student Aid Index (SAI) double the maximum Pell award will also be cut off. Supporters call it a fairness tweak; critics see it as punishing students whose families look wealthier on paper than they really are.
- Foreign income counts: Families with income abroad will see it added into Pell calculations.
- Family protections return: Small businesses, family farms, and now family fisheries are again shielded from aid calculations, undoing an earlier change that penalized them.
At the same time, Pell eligibility expands to cover very-short-term training programs — eight to fifteen weeks long — giving students a path to credentials in high-demand trades. But without data reporting or accountability built into the law, some fear shady operators will swoop in to grab federal money without delivering real value.
The Cut That Hurts Most
The law sets the stage for a $9 billion reduction in Pell funding. Beginning with the 2026–27 academic year, the maximum grant will fall from $7,395 to $5,710. Students must complete 30 credit hours annually — 15 a semester — to receive the full award. Those who attend part-time, often working parents or adult learners, will receive smaller grants or none at all.
Community colleges could be hit hardest. Many of their students juggle jobs, childcare, and school. Twelve credits a semester has long been considered full-time. Now, under the new rule, it won’t be enough.
“Students who can’t carry a full load will be shut out entirely,” warned one higher-ed advocate.
HBCUs on the Front Lines
For HBCUs, where Pell recipients make up the majority of students, the stakes could not be higher.
Tuskegee University President Mark A. Brown told senators that Pell cuts would force students to borrow more — or not enroll at all. “Today, Pell Grants cover only 31 percent of average public college costs, compared to 79 percent in 1975,” he said. “Cutting further puts college out of reach for millions.”
The warning comes as HBCUs face another blow: more than $140 million in federal grants have been canceled since March, including awards for research and scholarships at Hampton, Howard, Tennessee State, Florida A&M, and Morehouse. For campuses already under-resourced, this one-two punch — canceled research dollars and shrinking Pell support — threatens both institutional stability and student opportunity.
“Pell cuts would be devastating,” said Lodriguez V. Murray of the United Negro College Fund. “Instead of cutting, we should be doubling Pell. Lawmakers who wrote this bill are out of touch with reality.”
The Bigger Picture
Pell is not just a number in the federal budget. It is woven into the stories of first-generation students who show up at campuses with more hope than savings. Roughly 61 percent of recipients come from families earning less than $30,000. About 20 percent are parents themselves.
At community colleges, Pell helps single mothers cover daycare while finishing nursing degrees. At HBCUs, Pell has opened doors for generations of Black students locked out of wealth-building opportunities by systemic racism. Since its creation, Pell has supported more than 80 million low-income families.
Cutting the program now, analysts say, is a step backward. Katherine Meyer at Brookings called it a “retreat from the federal role in higher education” that will leave states and families scrambling. “Without robust federal funding, the end result will be fewer opportunities for the lowest-income students.”
Stopgaps and Shortfalls
To keep the program afloat, lawmakers added $10.5 billion in mandatory funding for FY2026. But this is a temporary patch. Because Pell is funded through a mix of annual appropriations and mandatory money, shortfalls happen regularly. Analysts argue the only real fix is to move Pell entirely to the mandatory side of the budget, with automatic adjustments based on enrollment. Until then, the program will lurch from one funding crisis to the next.
Signed Into Law — What Comes Next
On July 1, the Senate narrowly passed the reconciliation package — with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The House approved the Senate’s version two days later, and President Trump signed it into law on July 4.
That means the Pell changes are now part of law. The next battles will focus on implementation and oversight. The Department of Education faces a tight deadline to enforce the new eligibility rules by 2026. With staffing cuts underway, states may have to step in with stronger consumer protections to ensure quality outcomes, especially for fast-track training programs.
Meanwhile, advocates are preparing the next front: pushing future Congresses to restore or expand Pell. Already, Democrats and higher-ed groups are drafting proposals to revisit the maximum award and eligibility definitions in the next budget cycle. Civil rights groups are also weighing legal challenges, arguing that the changes disproportionately harm Black, Latino, and low-income students.
In other words, the law may have passed — but the debate over Pell’s future is far from over.
Why It Matters
For half a century, Pell Grants have embodied America’s promise: that college should be within reach for anyone willing to work for it. Cuts now would betray that promise, slamming shut doors of opportunity just when the country needs more trained workers, more teachers, more nurses, more innovators.
And for HBCUs — institutions born in struggle and sustained by faith in education’s power to transform lives — the stakes are even higher. Pell is not just financial aid. It is survival.
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