CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Big Beautiful Bill may impact the students that make up most of the enrollment in the state’s community and technical colleges.
State Higher Education Chancellor Dr. Sarah Armstrong Tucker told members of the West Virginia Council on Community and Technical Colleges in the council’s Thursday meeting the bill, which has passed the U.S. House, changes eligibility requirements for students seeking Pell Grants.
Tucker said the bill changes credit hours to be eligible from 12 to 15.
“That may not seem like a big deal but what that means is that the total award amount for Pell stays the same but the per credit hour amount is now divided by 15 where it’s now divided by 12, so it doesn’t go as far as it used to go,” Tucker told the Council.
The maximum Pell Grant award for this past academic year was $7,395.
Tucker said given last year’s enrollment numbers, students would lose about $12 million in Pell Grant funding under the proposed provisions.
“Those students who are losing that money, average age of 30-years-old, more than 60 percent of them work, they are the community college working adult students,” Tucker said.
Tucker predicted that would end up impacting the West Virginia Invests Program which is the tuition free, state-funded last-dollar-in program that pays for the remaining amount of tuition for eligible students after their other financial aid is subtracted.
Tucker said if students get fewer dollars from the Pell Grant they’ll need more dollars from Invest.
“If this budget bill goes through the way that it went through the House and remains that way in the Senate we may have some fancy footwork to do,” Tucker said.
The new state budget, passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Patrick Morrisey, cuts $2 million from the Invest program. Tucker said the cut was made because of the reserve funds in the program. She said the program may need more money in the future.
“I think that we have the reserves to take care of it for this year. I’m not worried about our ability that all of our students can go tuition-free this year but we may have to deal with it come legislative session,” Tucker said.
The Big Beautiful Bill also includes a number of changes in the area of student loans, Tucker said.
Tucker said her office is communicating with the state’s congressional delegation about the potential impacts of the bill.
West Virginia Invests has financially helped 3,700 students since it began in the 2019-2020 academic year.