With most lawmakers focusing on education tax breaks, one Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) member is touting what he calls a groundbreaking approach to financial aid that blends Pell Grants with elements of successful philanthropy projects.
Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) recently introduced legislation to create a 21st Century Scholars Program, which borrows a page from philanthropy in its basic premise: Low-income students can achieve and go to college if they know that financial help is readily available.
Fattah's plan is modeled after the "I Have a Dream" program of businessman Eugene Lang in New York City a decade ago. Lang guaranteed college tuition for a class of low-income sixth-grade students. Ninety percent eventually earned high school diplomas up from a projected 25 percent without the guarantee -- and 60 percent of the class also went on to college.
The congressman's bill would adapt this philosophy to the Pell Grant program. By the time they go to high school, students in the nation's poorest districts would get formal notification from the government that they are "guaranteed" four years of maximum Pell Grant aid if they attend college.
Based on 1997 law, the bill would assure students of at least $2,700 a year for four years. The notice would remain in the student's official record, and the Department of Education (ED) would provide annual updates on maximum Pell Grants every year thereafter.
"It will provide Pell awards to people who would be eligible for them anyway, but who might not have made it to college but for the encouragement provided by this program," Fattah said in introducing the bill as H.R. 777.
These children already are in the eligible pool for future Pell Grants, Fattah said. They simply need to know about the program as soon as possible. Such youth typically "don't consider postsecondary education as one of their life options," said a summary of the bill.
To qualify for the guarantee, students must attend a school where the proportion of families in poverty exceeds 75 percent. Once they meet this requirement, students and their parents or guardians would receive correspondence from the Secretary of Education about their Pell eligibility.
