An increase in Pell Grant funding approved in November by the Bush administration is great news for the 15,000-plus Penn State students who depend on the grants to keep them in school.

Or at least, it should be.

Unfortunately though, under Bush's plan, some 80,000 students across the country will be cut from the program entirely so that those who continue to receive grants can have more money.

Bush's plan calls for increased funding with fewer grants given out so that each grant can be of a higher amount. Only the lowest-income students would receive any Pell Grant money, and about one million would have their allocations cut. While it's not a bad idea to give lower-income individuals more money, completely cutting out the higher-end, low-income students will only result in more college dropouts and fewer students beginning their way through higher education

Sure, robbing the "not-so-rich" to pay the "even poorer" seems like a simple solution, and maybe in some situations it is. But when it comes to education, it's the worst solution, and it should never be tried.

More often than not, students who rely on financial aid to remain in college have a hard enough time as it is. Imagine being in such a situation: Managing full-time credits and a full or part-time job so you can pay for tuition, books, maybe rent, utilities, and who knows what else. And then imagine losing a sizeable portion of the financial aid that makes that balancing act possible.

For many here at Penn State, that situation is not so imaginary; it's their life.

And particularly for those who are already in the middle of their college education, losing aid could be especially devastating. Would President Bush or his cabinet members enjoy working hard for one, two or three years to earn a college diploma, only to find out that their financial aid was being taken away?

Probably not.

This new plan seems like nothing more than a public relations move that allows the government to put "increase" and "Pell Grants" in the same sentence without actually helping the majority of the public.

As it stands, there are thousands of students who could use extra financial aid and do not receive it. Why can't the Bush administration figure out a way to allocate more money overall to the Pell Grant program, and give a little bit to even more people? That way, more people could receive them, and with enough additional funding, those people might even be able to receive higher grants.

What a novel idea.