In his budget proposal for the 2008 fiscal year, President Bush plans to call for raising the maximum Pell Grant by nearly 14 percent, or $550, next year, the biggest one-year jump in the award for low-income students in more than three decades, the secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, announced on Thursday afternoon.
The plan also calls for an increase of 33 percent, or $1,350, over the next five years, bringing the maximum award to $5,400.
“This is real money that will help more low-income students achieve the dream of a college education,” Ms. Spellings said in a wide-ranging speech on higher education, delivered at North Carolina State University.