Thousands of low-income students are likely to lose their grant money under the Legislature’s latest budget balancing plan, including hundreds of University students.
The Oregon Student Assistance Commission doles out $40 million dollars every biennium to low-income students in the form of Oregon Opportunity Grants, but the latest budget plan will cut $2.23 million in grant money, which OSAC spokesman Gene Evans estimates will impact at least 2,000 Oregon students.
“We know that it’s going to mean fewer students getting opportunity grants,” Evans said. The commission helps students receive both private and public funding, but 84 percent of the students it services rely on public money. More than 1,900 University students receive the grants, which offer students $1,254 a year for public universities in Oregon.
Evans said that as many as 4,000 more students may be affected indirectly by the Legislature’s budget. OSAC gets roughly $6 million in interest payments from the Education Endowment Fund, but with the Legislature’s latest initiative that asks voters to use $220 million of the money to fund K-12 education, those interest payments will all but disappear.
State Board of Higher Education student representative Tim Young said students cannot afford to lose their scholarship money.
“This cut strikes at the heart of student access,” he said. “Reducing the Oregon Endowment Fund will have a long-term effect on scholarship programs.”
But Evans acknowledged the cuts must come from somewhere.
“There’s nobody who isn’t in this boat,” he said. “There are no good choices to be made.”
Students must come from a household that makes less than $38,000 a year to be eligible for the grants, or $7,400 a year if they’re on their own. Evans said OSAC will process students on a first-come, first-serve basis, and expects the money to go fast. Last year 127,000 Oregon Students filed a Free Application for Federal Student Aid. This year, the number is expected to top 140,000.
“This is a tough time for students in Oregon,” he said.