On opening college education for all who can benefit

[thucythucy]

55. Increasing Pell grants should definitely be a part of the mix

in any tuition aid program.

One point that hadn't occurred to me, when I posted my OP, was the role in the cutbacks of state funding to state universities and colleges have played in the incredible tuition inflation we've seen in past years.

In a way, all of these problems can be rolled at the feet of the Reagan/Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, on both the federal and state levels, with a concomitant increase with "defense" spending--meaning even less money for education. One of my criticisms of President Obama (whom I support and think is brilliant, BTW) was extending the Bush cuts when they were due to expire. I can't remember all the details, and know this was part of some insanely complex web of political back and forth, but allowing those cuts to roll forward has been a major--and generally unacknowledged--part of the problems younger people face today. It has been, in essence, not only a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, but also from younger generations to older (who were far more likely to benefit from the cuts than younger students and workers).

All that just to say: yay Pell grants!