The College of Menominee Nation (CMN) strongly opposes the proposed changes to the federal Pell Grant program in the current reconciliation bill, in addition to the funding cuts recommended in the recently released Department of the Interior’s 2025-26 budget.
The recommendations, including raising the full-time enrollment threshold and eliminating Pell Grants for students who are enrolled less than half-time, would cause increased and irrecoverable challenges to students both local and abroad, CMN officials said. These challenges would also disproportionately affect the rural communities that are entwined with Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs).
As expressed in the Tribal College Journal 1, “Pell grants are the foundation of college affordability for TCUs, which serve predominantly low-income, first-generation and American Indian and Alaska Native students. In the 2022-23 academic year, nearly 69% of first-time, full-time TCU students nationwide received Pell support, far above the national average for two-year public institutions.”
“Since the beginning of this new administration, CMN and other TCUs have seen constant potential and real impacts on the tribal sovereignty work we engage in through our higher education missions. Early on, we addressed issues with regards to the administration misconstruing tribal sovereignty with diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the unnecessary disruptive OMB funding freeze,” said CMN President, Christopher Caldwell.
“Now, we are dealing with proposed changes to the Pell formula in the reconciliation bill that could potentially exclude, on average, 70% of our student population, as well as all other TCUs. Earlier this week, we also saw detrimental proposed cuts in the federal FY2026 budget recommendations. If these recommendations go through, it would end many TCUs outright and create dire situations for others. This not only impacts CMN itself, but also the $16 million local economic impact that was reported in our economic impact study released earlier this year.”
Federal funding critical to TCU higher education is slated to be reduced by 83%, from $127.4 million in FY2024-25 to $22.1million in FY 2026, while an “annual program dedicated to construction and capital improvements at 1994 Tribal Land Grant institutions is proposed for a 100% reduction – from $8 million to $0.”
The proposed funding reduction would be catastrophic, forcing many TCUs to close their doors entirely, officials said. Already operating on bare minimum budgets, TCUs cannot absorb further cuts without eliminating programs, student services and staff. Such losses would reverse decades of progress in education, economic development and self-determination for tribal nations and their communities.
The College of Menominee Nation joins its voice to the urging of AIHEC in asking Congress to recognize the essential commitments of these previously established funding sources.
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