BEND, OR -- The cost of college keeps going up at a time financial aid for students is facing cuts. The federal budget just approved by the Senate last week cuts federal Pell grants by $90 million.

U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley was at OSU-Cascades Thursday talking with students and administrators about this trend. "And Pell grants are a foundation offered by the federal government to students of modest means to be able to pay for college.  The budget takes a 31 percent cut out of Pell grants.  It freezes them and they're not going up as inflation goes up."

Before the recession about a third of OSU Cascades students used Pell grants that don't have to be paid back, now half the students rely on these grants to be able to go to school.