Obama authorizes Pell Grants for 12,000 inmates to attend college, despite GOP pushback
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The Obama administration early Friday said roughly 12,000 prison inmates will be able to go to college — using Pell Grants paid for by taxpayers.
The pilot program, which is sure to receive push back from GOP lawmakers, is known as “Second Chance Pell.” For the first time in more than 20 years, it allows prison inmates to receive financial aid for college.
There are 67 colleges and universities participating — ranging from Alvin Community College in Texas to Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Most are public colleges, and no for-profit college is on the list.
The idea has met resistance from GOP lawmakers since last summer, when the administration announced it planned to use a provision in the Higher Education Act that allows for “experimental sites” to roll out the pilot program. In this case, the “experiment” is to test whether more people behind bars enroll in college programs after access to financial aid is expanded.
The chair of the Senate's education committee, Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), has said the administration doesn't have the authority to give Pell grants to prisoners.
But the Education Department says it does, and argues that educating prisoners is a smart investment.
“The evidence is clear," said Education Secretary John B. King Jr. "Promoting the education and job training for incarcerated individuals makes communities safer by reducing recidivism, and saves taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.”
The Education Department has partnered with more than 100 correctional facilities, and agreed to provide prisoners either classroom instruction, online programs or a hybrid of both. The department said it received more than 200 applications from schools that wanted to be involved.