A coalition of two dozen higher-education associations is pressing to double Pell Grants, which provide financial aid to low- and moderate-income students, Forbes reports.

The Double Pell Alliance was formed as the House Appropriations Committee began marking up the main bill funding federal higher education programs.

The initial version of the bill provides only a $400 increase in the grants, to $6,895. But another bill would make the maximum Pell Grant $9,000 in 2023-24 and increase that by $1,000 annually to $13,000 in 2027-28. Among other provisions, the grants would be made available to DREAMers, or young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children who are protected from deportation under a 2012 executive order by President Barack Obama that was upheld by the Supreme Court last year.

Forty percent of undergraduates, or more than 6.7 million students, receive Pell Grants, but the grants have failed for decades to keep pace with the cost of higher education.

The initial coalition members include the American Association of Community Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Association of American Universities, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

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