Messing With Pell Grants

The Bush Administration wants to raise typical Pell Grants - a noble sentiment - but save money in the process. How can that be done? The idea, apparently, is to make the banks take a bigger risk, with college loans:

But at least one idea, he [John E. Dean, special counsel for the Consumer Bankers Association] said, may be a tougher sell -- a plan to make banks assume a higher risk that students will default on loans, lowering the financial exposure for the government. That could prompt some banks to reduce loans to high-risk students, such as community-college students whose post-graduation income is less certain, Dean said.

Now, wasn't it in the final Presidential debate with Kerry last fall that Bush stressed education's role in keeping the work force employable in the face of technological change, and in particular, community-college education? Wasn't it? Well? And now they seem to be backing off from fulfilling that fine sentiment? What can one say?

Nice about the Pell Grant increases, which benefits the poorest students most of all, but at the direct expense of lower middle class students. In the last analysis, likely a bad development for poor college students in general! Get that class envy going, get the cultural wars stoked, where it hurts the most!