The U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing got heated Wednesday when the subject turned to cuts in higher education spending outlined in the budget proposal released this week by Congressional Republicans.
Seven demonstrators were arrested after they disturbed the hearing by chanting, “No cuts, no fees, education should be free,” Inside Higher Ed reported. Public information officer Shennell Antrobus told the publication that they would each be charged with “crowding, obstructing or incommoding,” a misdemeanor under District of Columbia law.
The demonstration at the hearing was organized by the United States Students Association, IHE reported. The group has plans to bring 300 more students to Capitol Hill this week to lobby for more student aid funding.
“If Congressional Republicans are going to balance the budget on the backs of students, we think it necessitates action now,” the group’s president Maxwell John Love told the publication.
Senate Republicans unveiled their budget proposal Wednesday and when it comes to higher education spending, it mirrors that of the House Republicans introduced earlier in the week.
Both freeze the maximum Pell Grant at the current $5,775 for the next 10 years.
Obama has made increasing Pell Grants a priority and widened the net of students able to cash in on them.
The Senate proposal also did not fund Obama’s $60 billion request for free community college, adding to the ire of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“Does the Republican budget support President Obama’s initiative to make two years of community college free or any other initiative to make college affordable? Sadly, it does not. But what it does do is cut $90 billion in Pell Grants over a 10-year period,” Sanders said.
Republicans argue that the recent levels of growth in the Pell Grant program are unsustainable and that by allowing more students to apply, the federal government has prevented those students who need it most from receiving the maximum awards.
