President Reagan’s proposed budget cuts for higher education, which include a 45 percent cut in student financial aid, appear to have little support in Congress.

The terms of Reagan’s budget propose the elimination of 17 educational programs on all levels. Among the proposed program cuts are the College Assistance Migrant Program, the College Work Study Program and construction loans for academic facilities.

Financial Aid for students is recommended for heavy cuts also. A proposed 45 percent reduction in available funds would result in about 900,000 of the nation’s 5.6 million recipients losing their financial aid.

Augustus Hawkins, D-California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, said the Reagan Administration gives the impression that the higher education budget has not been cut in the past and is not being cut now. “That is double-talk,” he said.

In fact, Reagan proposes a cut of “28 percent for education overall for fiscal 1988,” said Sara Lee Todd, special assistant to Hawkins.

If the cuts are approved, “approximately one million grantees will be dropped from the Pell Grant program, which will lose $1.2 billion,” Todd said.

Furthermore, due to a possible $412 million cut, there could be more than 240,000 fewer recipients of guaranteed student loans, she said.

“He (Hawkins) feels the House of Representatives and the Senate will give a complete and comprehensive look at the proposals and probably will not go along with him (Reagan) on the cuts,” Todd said.

Sen. Paul Simon, D-Illinois, said the budget has several problems. The proposed cuts will find little, if any, support in the Senate, he said.

“It (the proposed budget) is flawed in its estimates and misguided in its goals,” he said. “It’s a political flight of fancy that only touches the ground once or twice,” Simon added.

“You cannot cut education by more than $5 billion and build a better America,” he said.

Kenneth Beasley, assistant to NIU President John LaTourette, said the administration does not agree at all with Reagan’s proposals. “We (the administration) feel the opportunity for higher education should not be restricted to anyone on the basis of being able to pay,” he said.

“Reagan’s proposed budget denies college to many who can benefit from it,” Beasley said. “NIU supports equal access for all,” he said.