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Honda’s Pell Grant Proposal Fails in Congress

Mike Honda

By Associated Press

San Jose, Calif. — A proposal by Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, to increase the maximum amount of Pell Grants by $600 failed in U.S. Congress last week, according to his office.

Pell Grants provide federal financial assistance to college students. One in four U.S. postsecondary students takes advantage of the program.

The current maximum Pell Grant amount is $3,750 per student. Honda’s amendment to the education spending bill would have raised it to $4,350.

Honda’s amendment also would have provided $29 billion for teacher recruitment and training and $25 billion for school modernization over the next 10 years.

“We cannot expect our students to excel if we do not provide adequate funding to recruit, train and pay qualified teachers. We cannot expect our students to excel if we do not provide them with 21st century technology and modernized classrooms,” Honda said.

Honda’s amendment was part of the Democratic alternative to President George W. Bush’s education budget and failed on a party line vote.