Dive Summary:
- A new report released Tuesday by the College Board, and financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation, suggests the creation of two separate pathways for the Pell Grant.
- In the report, "Rethinking Pell Grants," 14 experts lay out two distinct pathways: one that would offer the grant to low-income students whose families can't afford college, and another that would allow adult learners more affordable access to short-term education for better jobs.
- The two paths would be referred to as "Pell Y" (for students 24 and younger) and "Pell A" (for adults), and the report insists that both remain part of the same program so that Congress can't cut support for one or the other.
From the article:
... As for the Pell program, in the 1970s, its early days, about 60 percent of recipients were dependent students, meaning their eligibility for aid was based on their parents' financial strength. The rest of the recipients were independent students, whose parents' finances were not considered because either the students were 24 or older, or they met other criteria, such as being active-duty service members or military veterans.
Today those shares have flipped, with 60 percent of Pell Grant recipients now independent students. ...