Asia Matthews may have to take out an additional $1,700 in student loans next year to complete her degree at Morgan State University, under a new Trump administration proposal to reduce Pell Grants.
Matthews’ additional loans would add to a $25,000 pile of debt she’s already racked up during her time in college, with around $10,000 still left to pay off.
“I’m not that happy about having to take out more loans,” said Matthews, 20, who’s studying multimedia journalism. “It’s a little overwhelming.”
The U.S. Department of Education is proposing to decrease the maximum Pell Grant award from $7,395 to $5,710 per year as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill, saying the cuts are necessary to solve a “growing funding shortfall created by past congressional decisions,” according to its 2026 budget request.
The reduction means many students like Matthews may need to take out additional student loans, or reconsider pursuing their preferred degree altogether.
Jake Flores, 24, worked throughout five years of college and helped his parents cover his tuition for the past three years while attending the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He took out a $7,000 loan last semester and was awarded a $3,700 Pell Grant this semester, which may decrease by around $850 if the Trump cuts go through.
Flores questioned whether anything would be done to help counteract the cuts instead of encouraging students to pile up more loans.
“Are you going to bring tuition prices down?” he asked. “Are you going to make state scholarships more available to people?… Because it just seems like it’s… leaving the student just hopeless.”
For 24-year-old Germantown resident Maddie Baltimore, college wouldn’t have been possible without $20,000 in Pell Grants she received over the past five-and-a-half years.
“I’m the first in my family to graduate from college,” said Baltimore, who graduated in December from Towson University after transferring from Howard Community College. “Coming from that background, my family isn’t as privileged to pay for my education in full… So without Pell Grants, I would not have been able to get my degree.”
Though Baltimore’s parents both dropped out of college, she drew inspiration to complete her degree from her grandmother, one of the first Black students to start attending a white school in the 1950s. Baltimore studied social sciences with a concentration in secondary education and is looking for teaching jobs.
“In most cases, students who would normally not have to borrow money, would have to borrow money in order to cover their tuition,” said Patricia Scott, executive director of financial aid for the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Decreasing tuition coverage
In-state tuition for students obtaining their Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing at UMB is around $10,000, Scott said. That means students who receive a full Pell award would see a decrease in their tuition coverage from 74% to 57%. Other students receiving less than the full award would see changes to their award amounts as well.
The reductions could mean fewer students getting nursing degrees, Scott said.
“We need nurses,” Scott said. “The neediest of students, if they cannot afford to finance their education, I don’t know what’s going to happen, not just to UMD, West Baltimore, the state of Maryland, but the world.”
The Trump administration said the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] Simplification Act, passed by Congress in 2021, “did not provide sufficient funding to cover the generous changes to Pell award determination and eligibility expansion.” The administration added that “Congress has steadily increased the maximum award for the Pell Grant program without providing additional Budget authority.”
“Together, these actions have led to an untenable shortfall in this important program in FY 2026 and over the next decade.” The administration also highlighted instances of fraudulent applications, saying it has “resumed automated post screening of student aid records.”
29% of Maryland students get Pell Grants
Nearly half of UMB’s undergraduate students — 404 out of around 900 — received a Pell Grant for the 2024-2025 award year, Scott said. Awards received by UMB students ranged from $142 to the maximum award of over $7,000.
Pell Grants are the largest need-based grant program for postsecondary students. In Maryland, 29.3% of undergraduate students received Pell Grants in year 2022-2023, slightly lower than the 31.6% nationally, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The average award in Maryland is $4,450 per recipient, with 104,443 total recipients, per the Education Data Initiative.
Awards are determined based on annual family income, household size and number of dependents. According to the Education Data Initiative, about half of the money in the Pell Grant program goes to students with families making under $20,000 a year, another 39% of the funds go to those in the $20,001 to $50,000 range, and 6% to those making more than $60,000.
‘Grave threat’
The potential Pell Grant funding reduction represents a “grave threat” to Maryland students’ educational aspirations and the economy, said Sanjay Rai, Maryland’s Secretary of Higher Education, in an emailed statement.
“A reduction in Pell Grants would force thousands of students to take on crippling debt, significantly reduce their course load, delay their education, or abandon their college dreams altogether,” Rai said.
He continued, “If fewer Marylanders can afford to pursue higher education, we will surely see a decline in the number of graduates entering science and technology fields like quantum and AI, which will hinder our ability to innovate and attract businesses.”
‘Funding shortfall’
The Trump administration wrote in its education budget request that the president “is committed to fulfilling his promise to preserve the Pell Grant program” but that the funding shortfall necessitated a decrease in the maximum award.
“The Administration looks forward to working with Congress to develop a long-term, sustainable solution,” the education department wrote.
The administration added that it wants to “reimagine Pell.”
“Federal investments in workforce development should be aligned with our country’s reindustrialization needs and propel workers into secure, well-paying, and high-need American jobs,” the department wrote.
Scott, the UMB administrator, said that while Pell Grant money has increased over the years, the awards “have not kept up with inflation.”
“The original intent of this program is… covering a large portion of a student who’s eligible for the full grant,” she said.
Fraudulent awards
The Education Department said in a press release on May 28 that a recent analysis found $90 million in student aid payments to ineligible recipients. That included more than $30 million paid to “thousands of deceased individuals” in the past three years.
The department also said it found $6 million in Pell Grants was “incorrectly disbursed to ineligible individuals.”
“The Department uses data models to identify potentially suspicious or inconsistent information submitted on the FAFSA form,” the department wrote. “These models help flag applications that may require additional review to ensure the student aid is awarded accurately.”
Scott, who has been at UMB since 1989, said although it’s possible for someone to “slip through” and receive an award they’re not eligible to receive, she hasn’t seen this happen during her time at the university. She said when a student completes the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, there are various checks to ensure eligibility, including making sure Social Security numbers are attached.
Scott added she’s heard colleagues say they’ve encountered instances where students have stolen someone’s identity to receive federal student aid.
“If someone steals someone’s identity, then that is something that we could possibly see when they complete the FAFSA and they go through all of the edit checks that federal student aid has in place,” Scott said.
Avoiding student debt
Without Pell Grants and scholarships she received through her church and other organizations, Matthews doesn’t think she’d be able to attend Morgan State.
“I think I would have tried to find some type of online program that was not as expensive as a four-year institution, and probably gotten a part-time job,” she said.
Baltimore, the Towson University student, said, “it’s very freeing,” knowing that Pell Grants were preventing her from having to take out more student loans.
If the grants are reduced, Baltimore said it could have serious implications for many students.
“If and when that happens, a lot of people are not going to be able to pursue higher education,” she said. “And that is very, very unfortunate.”
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