That Lump of Coal in Your Stocking?

It's a gift from the President and Congress. Look what I found on Inside Higher Ed while you were being festive. Billions were stripped from the final 2008 spending bill. Guess who's taking the hit?

Favorite Paragraph: "In addition, the budget reconciliation measure provides funds to increase the maximum Pell Grant by $490 in 2008. But to the dismay of college officials, Congressional Democrats, knowing that they had already delivered a significant increase in the program through the back door of mandatory funds, opted to provide only enough in discretionary money to set the maximum grant at $4,241, which represents a decrease from the 2007 level of $4,310, the first such cut in 15 years."

Inside Higher Ed also had a handy chart that shows the amounts of specific cuts.