Pell Grant
A Pell Grant is a subsidy the U.S. federal government provides for students who need it to pay for college.
Federal Pell Grants are limited to students with exceptional financial need, who have not earned their first bachelor's degree, or who are enrolled in certain post-baccalaureate programs, through participating institutions.
These federally funded grants help about 5.4 million full-time and part-time college and vocational school students nationally.
[8] Today, the Pell Grant program assists undergraduates of low-income families, who are actively attending universities and or other secondary institutions.
President Lyndon B. Johnson implemented the HEA as a part of his administration's agenda to assist and improve higher education in the United States.
Universities and other institutions, such as vocational schools, benefited as well from the HEA program, by receiving federal aid to improve the quality of the education process.
Lois Rice, an American corporate executive, scholar and education policy expert is known as the "mother of the Pell Grant" for her work lobbying for its creation.
In 1994, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (VCCLEA), a provision of which revoked Pell Grant funding "to any individual who is incarcerated in any federal or state penal institution.
The provision reads, "No basic grant shall be awarded under this subpart to any individual who is incarcerated in any Federal or State penal institution.
As the principal design of the Pell Grant was to help low-income individuals attain post-secondary education, including prisoners was consistent with the goal.
Including prisoners for funding was based on the notion that higher education improved the lives of inmates, reduced recidivism, and contributed to a more orderly institution.
[10] At the executive level, the Obama administration backed a program at the Department of Education that would have allowed for a limited lifting of the ban for some prisoners called the Second Chance Pell Pilot.
However, the additional funding does not match the needs of increasing numbers of students who enroll in college and qualify for aid through the recession.
After the initial FAFSA application is submitted, the student is notified by email or regular postal delivery if funding is awarded.
[18] The U.S. Department of Education has a standard formula that it uses to evaluate the information that each person supplies when applying for the Pell Grant.
The formula produces a number that is called the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), which determines the student's eligibility.
[19] This grant requires each applicant to be an undergraduate student who has not yet earned a bachelor's degree, and a United States citizen or an eligible non-citizen (usually, a permanent resident).
The Pell Grant also requires that students maintain satisfactory academic progress in a degree-oriented program as defined by the school they attend.
The school must tell the student in writing how much the award will be and how and when it will be paid, and it must disburse Pell Grant funds once a semester/term or twice during the academic year.
[1][2] Students coming from low-income families already face increased challenges that hinder their ability to receive a higher education.
The Pell Grant addresses one of the issues by making college accessible to students that may need the financial assistance.
In 1997, one study on 3,200 prisoners in three states showed that receiving education while incarcerated reduced the likelihood of re-incarceration by 29 percent.
Privately funded programs like the one we visited, the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI), slowly sprang up, but they do not begin to fill the enormous need."
She argues that access to education may help reduce the high recidivism rates of 50-60% and reports that "Of the 600 BPI alumni who have been released in the past 20 years, only 4% have gone back to prison."
