In Michigan, college tuition at that state’s four-year public universities has increased a whopping 57 percent in the last five years. Would you like to know how much the maximum Pell Grant award has increased in the same time period? $0. That’s right. Not a dime. Would you like to know how much of an increase Congress is now proposing for the Pell Grant? Less than $300 in the first year, and $200 per year through 2012. And last year’s average Pell Grant award was $2, 354 – down nearly $300 from 2002-03’s inflation-adjusted levels.

The good news is that Congress doesn’t plan to get caught sleeping again. They want to increase the maximum Pell Grant amount by a very generous $200 per year. Someone needs to tell the honorable men and women in Washington that a single text book can cost more than $200 these days.$200 isn’t going to cut it. What’s going to fill the gap between the enormous cost increases and federal financial aid programs that aren’t keeping pace with reality? Nothing, if Congress has its way.

Congress plans to remove most of the FFELP lenders from the student loan lending program, and replace them with a government-run program that claims to meet the needs of students? How can such a program meet the needs of students, when Congress isn’t paying attention to the spiraling costs of tuition?

How do I know that Congress isn’t paying attention? Congress has been decreasing Federal financial aid in the past few years. As college tuition skyrocketed, was Congress there to help? No. In fact, by doing nothing, they made it harder on American families to make ends meet and to find the money for their children to attend college.

In contrast, private lenders worked hard to make up the difference for America’s working families. The FFELP lenders were there, as they have been for the past 40 years, while Congress was nowhere to be found. Where was Senator Kennedy when the costs of tuition were rising so steeply? Was he advocating for increases in the Pell Grants then? No. Was he looking at the reasons college tuition has increased so sharply? No.

This is all political window-dressing at the expense of student borrowers. When students are stuck trying to make Senator Kennedy’s broken system work for them, will the good Senator be anywhere around? Don’t bet on it.

Tell your representatives and senators in Congress that you don’t want to get stuck with Senator Kennedy’s broken plan for 15 years while Congress takes a nap. Tell them to address the real issue, which is the rising cost of tuition.