Obama to Restore College Grants for Some Prison Inmates

“Eight years after I left prison I was running a $23 million non-profit as senior vice president”.

“I didn’t think that I could do college, that I was capable of it”, Small, 23, said.

At the prison on Friday, the Baltimore man told U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Education Secretary Arne Duncan that he wants to show his three children a different path: education. The colleges that will participate have not yet been chosen.

“Without fully explaining all of that information, folks could find themslevs leaving prison with a lot more debt than they originally anticipated, and diminished options for employment opportunities”, Cabusora says. “Just give this program a chance”, he said. By setting up the proposed “experimental sites, ” the administration would be seeking to get around the ban with a pilot program.The experimental sites initiative section of the Higher Education Act of 1965 allows federal officials to set up temporary programs to test the effectiveness of statutory and regulatory flexibility for disbursing Title IV student aid. Wonder who will oppose it…NYT: “Pilot Program to Provide Federal Student Aid to Prisoners”, another said.

“Through this pilot program, incarcerated individuals who otherwise meet Title IV eligibility requirements and are eligible for release, particularly within the next five years, could access Pell grants to pursue postsecondary education and training”, the statement said. The experiment, to be launched by fall 2016, would provide an exception to a ban enacted in 1994 that made prisoners ineligible for Pell grants. Prisoners had been eligible for the aid since 1972. Vivian Nixon knows how an education can affect an inmate’s mindset all too well.

In 1992, amendments to the Higher Education Act banned Pell grants for prisoners serving a life sentence or sentenced to death.

“I went into a deep depression and it was disgusting”, Nixon said of the experience.

Besides Pell Grants, the pilot program would need the support of numerous nation’s colleges and universities.

“That’s been the argument all the way along”, said Stephen Steuer, the executive director of the Correctional Education Association.

Education Committee Chairman John Kline, a House Republican, though willing to openly discuss the benefits of college funding for prison inmates, criticizes the Obama administration for not passing through Congress.

Congress excluded federal and state prisoners from Pell grants in 1994. Goode said college coursework had encouraged his students to become contributing members of society upon release, or agents of positive change within the prison population.

The efforts follow a growing body of research showing that education while in prison, including college classes, reduces recidivism rates for inmates.

Patrick Semansky-AP Inmate Alphonso Coats, a participant in the Goucher College Prison Education Partnership, sits in a discussion with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other officials inside the Maryland Correctional Institution-Jessup on July 31, 2015, in Jessup, Md.

“Pell grants cost less than $6,000 [a] year, [while] locking someone up is about ,000”.

We applaud the Obama administration for taking this important step. But policymakers could head off the cycle of crime and poverty before it starts through other reforms, such as providing parents more choice in their child’s education. At the same time, she adds, it’s critical that ex-offenders understand the value of the degree or certificate program they enroll in, and what kinds of financial responsibilities they’re taking on.