Pell Grant Cuts Hurt For-Profit Colleges After 8-Fold Rise

For-profit colleges, led by Apollo Group Inc.’s University of Phoenix, will be disproportionately hurt by cuts in the $30 billion Pell Grant program for low-income students.

Pell Grant aid to for-profit-college students grew almost eightfold in the past decade to $7.5 billion in 2009-2010, and now accounts for 25 percent of the funds, according to the U.S. Education Department. Apollo, the largest U.S. for-profit college with revenue of $4.8 billion, got $1 billion from the grants in 2009-2010, said Jarrel Price, an analyst at Height Analytics LLC in Washington.