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Sunday, 5 August 2012

Pell Grants: Where Does All the Money Go?

Pell Grants: Where Does All the Money Go? | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy

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Article ArchiveResearch
Pell Grants: Where Does All the Money Go?Jenna Ashley Robinson and Duke Cheston examine how well Pell grants serve students and taxpayers.

By Jenna Ashley Robinson and Duke ChestonComments

June 11, 2012

A complete copy of Pell Grants: Where Does All the Money Go? is available for download as an Adobe Acrobat file compatible with Adobe Reader.

The Federal Pell Grant Program, which provides need-based grants to millions of college students, is the federal government’s largest education expenditure. It consumes over half the Department of Education’s annual budget and in 2010-2011 cost taxpayers about $36 billion per year.

Although the program started out as a way to provide college access to low-income students, it has grown so vast in recent years that nearly 60 percent of all undergraduates now receive Pell grants.

In spite of the high cost, few people have scrutinized the effectiveness of Pell grants. This report, “Pell Grants: Where Does All the Money Go?” by Jenna Ashley Robinson and Duke Cheston, brings together what is known about Pell grants to determine how well the program serves the students who receive them and the taxpayers who fund them.

Hard copies are available from the Pope Center at no charge. To request a copy, send an email to: info@popecenter.org.

CORRECTION: The unit on the right-axis on the table entitled "Total Pell Grant Recipients and Expenditures, 1974-2010" should be billions, not millions.

Download PDF file: Pell Grants: Where Does All the Money Go? (469 k)

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Saturday, 11 June 2011

Come Down Where You Ought to Be

This summer, I attended a national convention of church leaders in Atlanta. It was wonderful to be in the company of the renowned, the famous, the brilliant, and the experts. Everywhere I turned there went another one.

What really drove me wild was that they would actually stop and talk to me… me, a little, unknown church lady from the Midwest. They acted like they knew me. Then, I realized they did know me. It dawned on me that I was famous! Who knew? How could I be anybody of note? Yet, sure enough they kept coming: asking me to sign my book, to have lunch with them, to sit in on their “round table discussion.” Wow! This was great. I was outstanding in my field.

In the midst of this Who’s Who in the Catholic Church, I would go for a walk down Peachtree Street with my colleagues every afternoon for lunch. Each day, I would pass a beautiful African American woman who stood on the sidewalk singing hymns to Jesus. She was unabashedly proclaiming praise and adoration in a well trained mezzo soprano voice that took my breath away. People ignored her, laughed at her, and treated her like a crazy person. Yet she was unruffled. She just kept singing. It took real humility to bear such ridicule. I realized, straight out, that I could never be so bold, so humble, to stand there looking like a fool because of my faith.

It was then, one evening at prayer, that God spoke to me in the quiet of my heart: “Don’t let your popularity go to your head, Sweet Cheeks. You are only any good at all because I am infinitely good. Everything you say, everything you do is just a shadow of my Word.” I realized that I needed to keep my swollen head in check and if I didn’t, God would be more than willing to help me out. I vowed to behave myself and “come down where I ought to be.”

Then I put two and two together. The Divine Teacher was trying to get through to me: No one of us is any better than anyone else. He wants his disciples humble. He especially wants his priests, lay ministers, and vowed religious to be even more humble than the rest of the flock. He was serious when he said we should always take the last seat. The minute we sit up front because we think we are special, anointed, gifted, we are no longer any of those things. In fact, a friend prays that every day God will give him a moment of humility.

So I began, that very day as I passed that lovely singer, asking God to give me my daily dose of humility. Since then, I have had multiple corrections for my limited computer skills, lost my wallet and found it exactly where it was supposed to be, was asked if I wanted a senior discount, and mispronounced a Latin term in front of a scripture scholar. I am waiting: to forget someone’s name in an introduction, congratulate a non-pregnant, overweight woman on her pregnancy, and have spinach between my teeth and not realize it, for God does answer prayers!

The lesson for all of us is that we must be on guard against believing that we are elite, special, or a cut above. It is a poison that will bring our downfall and keep us from doing God’s work. I will remember my Atlanta singer and the lesson I learned at my moment in the sun…or in that Son. He brought me down where I ought a be, and I’m darn grateful to be just a good old, church lady from the Midwest.

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Photo Credit: Idea go

Jeanne Hunt is a Director for Product Development at St. Anthony Messenger Press. She is a well known speaker and author on topics of women’s spirituality, marriage and family life. Her latest book is "Celebrating Saints and Seasons." blog comments powered by

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Tuesday, 24 May 2011

You Put the Peanut Butter Where?

When Mark and I first got married, we went through all the required Pre-Cana classes and even decided to go for the full Engaged Encounter weekend as opposed to the abbreviated one-day class. Come our wedding day, we thought we were set. Finances? Check. Number of children desired? Check. Extended family? Thoroughly discussed.

But then one day after we were married I went to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.

“Where’s the peanut butter?” I asked Mark.

“In the refrigerator.”

“Are you serious?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s disgusting. You can’t spread it when it’s cold. It rips the bread.”

“I have to have the peanut butter cold,” he insisted. “Oh, and it has to be Jif.”

And that moment is when our marriage truly began. I didn’t remember anything in our vows about this. Sickness and health I could do. But this was a stretch.

Suddenly I realized that I had a lot to learn as far as my lifelong partner was concerned. And that it’s not always the big things that can trip up a marriage.

I can honestly say, that most of our major battles during the 16 years of our marriage have not been over finances, sex or parenting styles. No, they have been over things like how to do laundry, how to properly fold a towel, whether or not you should zip up a jacket when you hang it up so it doesn’t fall off the hanger and whether or not to use flannel sheets. Don’t act like all you married couples don’t know exactly what I’m talking about.

So what’s my point in bringing this up? Well, my point is, that as weird or annoying as we may find our spouses little idiosyncrasies, they are part and parcel of the person we have decided to “love, honor and cherish” for the rest of our lives–even if we didn’t know about it at the time. It’s also a good exercise in learning to compromise and figure out what’s really important to you.

Would I chose Mark again today if I knew beforehand that he preferred cold peanut butter? Absolutely. Would he choose me knowing that he would spend the rest of his life picking up the clothes I left on the floor? I hope so. Because all those things combined don’t come close to adding up to the promise we made to each other, before God and our families almost 15 years ago.

And that’s why our peanut butter is currently residing on a shelf in our fridge.

This “Marriage Moment” was orginally broadcast on American Catholic Radio.

By day, Susan Hines-Brigger is the assistant managing editor of St. Anthony Messenger, By night, she and her husband, Mark, are the caretakers and social directors for their four kids: Maddie, Alex, Riley and Kacey. blog comments powered by

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Thursday, 24 February 2011

Home is where the heart is, even for Kenyan street kids

http://bit.ly/gTfsuy 8 hours agoCNS top stories: Kenyan church leaders teach children everyone is a missionary: http://bit.ly/hWdykF #CNSstory 9 hours agoCNS top stories: Religion vs. science: Writer delves into sainthood process in new book: http://bit.ly/gx4p3d #CNSstory 12 hours agoNew CNS video: Carol Glatz focuses on a special announcement made by the Vatican...in Latin, only on #CNSclient sites http://ow.ly/1rpzh 12 hours agoRT Posted byThe Premierat22:18Posted byThe Premierat10:25Posted byThe Premierat22:30Posted byThe Premierat09:59Posted byThe Premierat23:19

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Sunday, 5 August 2012

Saturday, 11 June 2011

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Thursday, 24 February 2011