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It is back to school season, and over 67,000 college students in Mississippi are relying on Pell Grants to help pay for college. But, the program is facing a $15 billion funding shortfall that will undermine college access and success unless the United States Congress fixes the funding gap.
The Pell Grant program is the primary federal grant helping low- and middle-income students pay for college. Students can use the funds to pay for tuition, books and living costs like rent and food.
Congress wisely made structural changes to the Pell Grant program at the end of the first Trump administration as part of the FAFSA Simplification Act. Those changes created a new Student Aid Index, based on family income and assets, that is used to determine how much financial aid a student is eligible for. The changes raised the eligibility threshold for Pell Grants, making almost 600,000 more students eligible, and approximately 1.7 million more eligible for the maximum grant.
The eligibility changes mean more students are receiving Pell than anticipated. Because Pell is funded through discretionary appropriations, Congress must estimate how much money is needed. When the estimates are too low, there is a shortfall that requires additional appropriations.
Mississippians who rely on Pell funding need to know that funding will be there for the duration of their programs. Students cannot make informed decisions about postsecondary education and training if they do not know whether the financial aid they are counting on will be available from one year to the next.
Cuts to Pell would also undermine Mississippi’s ongoing efforts to increase postsecondary credentials and degrees that lead to family-sustaining employment.
Mississippi Valley State University is seen on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Itta Bena. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayJust last year, the state expanded eligibility for financial aid programs like the Higher Ed Legislative Plan and Mississippi Tuition Assistance Grant to make it easier for our students to get help paying for college. But, state financial aid relies on complementing Pell funding, not replacing it. If Pell grants are reduced, state funding cannot make up the difference.
Mississippi has also been a leader in helping students apply for financial aid to help pay for college. This year, according to the National College Attainment Network’s FAFSA Tracker, Mississippi ranks third in the country with a record-breaking 71% of the 2026 high school class completing the aid application. FAFSA is the federal form that determines student eligibility for aid to help pay for college and other training after high school.
More students, especially low-income and first-generation students, enrolling in college is a good problem to have.
FAFSA simplification and increased Pell Grant eligibility are rare examples of policy changes rapidly achieving the hoped-for outcome of increasing college access. This progress will be undermined if Congress jeopardizes millions of students’ Pell Grants by failing to fully fund the program.
There are positive signs that this administration and congress are willing to fix the Pell shortfall. The President’s budget proposed maintaining the current maximum grant, but did not include funding to address the shortfall. Congress is now considering legislation that would both address the funding gap and increase the maximum grant by $50.
But, the House proposal would pay for that increase by eliminating subsidized federal student loans, another important tool that helps make college affordable. This approach would add thousands of dollars of interest to the loan balances of millions of student loan borrowers, but especially students who rely on Pell funding.
The maximum Pell Grant of $7,395 is already too low. Today, the max grant covers 30% of average tuition, housing and food at public colleges, down from 79% of those expenses in 1975. If the maximum grant had kept pace with inflation since 2022, when it was last increased, it would be $8,109 today. An extra $50 is a positive if insufficient step in the right direction.
If Congress fails to address the Pell funding shortfall, millions of students will struggle to cover tuition, possibly stop attending school or decide not to enroll in the first place
Financial challenges are already the primary reason that students leave college. There is also strong evidence that every $1,000 of grant aid increases graduation rates by 1.5 percentage points. Similar sized cuts are likely to reduce graduation rates, after years of positive gains.
Lower graduation rates would disproportionally impact first generation and low-income students, potentially reversing the enrollment gains we are seeing among those groups.
They are the students that we work to support at the Woodward Hines Education Foundation and our Get2College program, and who have the most to gain from higher education and training. Those students know exactly how valuable college is, because they know what it’s like when a lack of education limits your options.
Mississippi students are doing their part. They are completing the FAFSA, enrolling in college and pursuing credentials that can strengthen their futures and our state’s workforce. They should be able to count on the financial aid they planned around.
Congress must close the Pell funding shortfall so Mississippi students can move forward knowing the support they planned on will be there when they need it most.
James E. McHale is president and CEO of the Woodward Hines Education Foundation and the Mississippi Higher Education Assistance Corporation, based in Jackson. Since joining WHEF as president in December 2015, McHale has led the organization’s efforts to expand postsecondary access, affordability, persistence and completion and strengthen connections between education and family-sustaining work for Mississippians.
Under McHale’s leadership, WHEF has expanded its work beyond college access to support promising practices, programs and policies that help more Mississippians enter and complete postsecondary education and connect their credentials to meaningful employment. He has led efforts to strengthen WHEF’s college access program, Get2College, which provides free college planning and financial aid assistance to students and families across Mississippi, while also advancing the foundation’s partnerships and policy work to address systemic barriers to postsecondary success.
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