If you’ve been watching the news at all lately, you’ve probably heard about the narrowly averted shutdown of the government, and how the compromise over the 2011 federal budget has affected spending on higher education. What you may not have heard is that the final version of the budget calls for spending cuts on higher education by $89 billion over the next 10 years.

What does this mean to students who rely on financial aid programs to attend colleges and universities? There are a number of factors involved, but one of the biggest compromises was achieved on the Pell Grant program. The Pell Grant has long been a means for the federal government to assist students from low-income families in attending college. Students can be awarded up to $5,500 per year in grant money under this program.

Issues actually began to arise in 2008, when the financial crisis began to affect more families. The number of students who were eligible for Pell Grant money began to grow, and costs of the program began to rise as a result. In the last three years, the cost to the federal government for Pell Grants has grown $15 billion to its current level, at about $35 billion.

Because of this rapid growth, leaders of the House of Representative had slated the program for major cutbacks. The final budget compromise, however, saved the Pell Grant program from the severe cuts that were outlined in the House plan and minimized the effects to the program.

The major difference is that students will no longer be eligible for two Pell Grants in a single year. Beginning in 2010, students were able to apply for a second grant toward the cost of taking summer classes. This will no longer be the case under the guidelines of the new budget. The justification for this seems to be the fact that the addition of a second grant per school year did not produce the intended result, namely increased graduation rates.

This is bad news for many students, as it may delay their graduation date if they are unable to pay for and attend summer classes. It certainly isn’t the worst-case scenario that many feared, though. At least for the time being, the Pell Grant program is safe from any drastic cuts, and students from low-income families still have the opportunity to work toward a better future by attending college with the assistance of federal student aid.

*guest blog pot by Daniel Still