The Department of Education has proposed increasing course requirements for the Academic Competitiveness Grant, which is given to Pell Grant recipients who have completed rigorous high school coursework.

The department has not released any statements as to why these changes are being suggested, but critics say the changes would be detrimental to students who come from communities where access and quality of honor programs and advanced coursework is limited.

The federal grants, which were awarded for the first time this year, offer first-year college students up to $750 and second-year students up to $1,300.

In order to qualify currently, first-year students must have received a passing score on two Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests, graduated from a State Scholars program – an honors-curriculum system popular in 24 states outside California – or passed courses like those required by the State Scholars program, according to the federal student aid’s Web site.

The State Scholars program requires four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of laboratory science, three and a half years of social studies and two years of a language other than English.

But the Department of Education suggested earlier this month to a federal panel that starting in 2009, students should complete an additional year of math with two courses at a level above Algebra I, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a publication that reports higher-education news.

Students would also have to take either two years of a foreign language or one year of a foreign language and an additional year of social studies, humanities, technology or computer science. By 2010, the department proposed that each student take three math courses higher than Algebra I.

But statistics show that some areas may have trouble providing these qualifying courses.

In California, for example, 53 percent of high schools have insufficient college-preparatory courses, and a third of high school teachers teaching college-preparatory math courses are improperly trained, according to research from UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.

The report also said students from lower-income communities face more obstacles on the way to college than those from wealthier neighborhoods.

“There are serious disparities in the number of (college-preparatory) courses provided and whether the teachers for them are appropriately trained,” said John Rogers, a UCLA education studies professor who specializes in urban schooling.

Department of Education spokeswoman Stephanie Babyak said the department had no official statement as to why the changes were made, and added that members of the panel which received the proposal are barred from making comments to the press.

But a reporter from the Chronicle of Higher Education recorded some criticism during a public meeting of the Department of Education’s panel, which includes college officials, financial-aid officers, students and others.

“This is going to penalize the poorest of the poor,” said Dr. Elaine Copeland, president of Clinton Junior College in South Carolina, at the rule-making panel’s public discussion, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Department of Education also did not include a clause to extend the grant to certificate transfer students. Negotiators on the department’s panel said not extending the grant limits students from low-income communities.

Department officials maintained the program could not afford to fund certificate transfer students.

But other panel members said because fewer transfer students than expected qualified last year, there was a financial surplus.

“The inclusion of certificate-program students isn’t going to blow the budget,” said George Chin, financial aid director at the City University of New York, during the public meeting.

The proposal comes on the heels of other significant changes to federal financial aid for students.

Earlier this year, President Bush proposed a 33 percent increase of Pell Grants over the next five years.

But the proposal was quickly followed by another to eliminate two other grant programs for low-income students – the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Program – and a $18.8 billion cut to federal subsidies for student-loan lenders.