The bill that ended last August’s standoff over the debt ceiling — when House Republicans held the nation’s creditworthiness hostage for spending cuts — will cause hundreds of thousands of students to face reductions in their Pell Grants or to lose the grants entirely. As the San Jose Mercury News reported today, “Among those who will lose Pell Grants in the summer are at least 65,000 new college students without high school diplomas…Changes in income requirements will reduce or eliminate grants for nearly 300,000 others.” Those cuts also cost the economy 1.8 million jobs, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) is already preparing another debt ceiling showdown for this winter.