The proposal, included in Obama’s 2011 fiscal year budget, also would raise the maximum Pell Grant award from $5,350 to $5,710, according to a statement from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. During the 2007-08 school year, 7,004 MSU students received Pell Grants.

Zack Pohl, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek, said these investments could stimulate Michigan’s economy.

“(Congressman Schauer) plans to carefully review the details of the president’s 2011 budget throughout the coming days, but in principle, he supports efforts to make higher education more affordable for middle-class families by boosting funding for Pell Grants,” he said.

U.S. lawmakers now will review Obama’s fiscal year 2011 spending suggestions and use them as a blueprint as they develop their own budget.

Some lawmakers still are concerned Obama’s proposal would cost too much.

“With the highest unemployment in America, now is not the time to burden Michigan’s middle class with the largest levels of borrowing, spending and tax increases in our nation’s history,” U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, said in an e-mail.

Regardless of the price tag, nursing sophomore Tricia Hemingway said the program would be beneficial.

“In the long run, it will help us out more,” she said. “Despite cost, it would make it easier for students.”

On average, between five and six million students nationwide receive Pell Grants each year, said Angela Peoples, legislative director for the United States Student Association, or USSA. USSA is a nonpartisan organization that lobbies Congress for student-related issues such as tuition.

“Pell Grants are the cornerstone of our student lending system,” she said. “It allows more and more students to go to college each year that wouldn’t be going (otherwise).”

The increase would allow an additional one million students nationwide to receive the funding, Peoples said. Obama’s budget proposal also included his plan to cut student loan payments to 10 percent of a borrower’s income after graduation and forgive student loan debt after 20 years. Currently graduates make a monthly payment of 15 percent of their income and loans are forgiven after 25 years.

Rogers said the budget calls for a record $1.6 trillion deficit this year and Obama’s proposed spending could hinder job creation.

“With this budget (Obama) still plans to double the national debt,” he said in the e-mail. “This astounding new debt will force the United States to borrow most of the money from foreign countries and will (make) it harder for small businesses to get access to the credit they need to create new jobs.”