Stimulus Package Offers College Students $50 Billion in Benefits
By Converge Staff
on February 26, 2009
As the nation's school districts figure out how and where to use forthcoming stimulus funds, college students are expected to benefit from more than $50 billion from Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, according to an msnbc report.
The economic stimulus package, which will double the Department of Education's budget over the next two years, will "make a reported 4 million more college students eligible for expanded tax benefits and significantly increase federal grant funding for an estimated 7 million students," according to the article. Here are a few of the reported benefits:
- The widely used federal Pell Grant program will get a $17.1 billion increase in funding.
- The federal work-study program will receive a $200 million boost.
- A new tax credit will temporarily raise the currently available maximum education tax credit to $2,500 from $1,800, up by 40 percent.
- The bill expands education tax credit eligibility by opening up the benefit to students from lower-income families not currently pay taxes.
- The new tax credit will be refundable up to 40 percent for those families who do not owe any taxes; all eligible families will be able to write off non-tuition expenses like textbooks.
For the complete story, visit msnbc.
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