In a new analysis, Excelencia in Education put a spotlight on current federal COVID-19 funding proposals as well as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and its impact on Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs).
The findings are staggering.
Inconsistencies in the CARES Act funding was based on the full-time equivalent (FTE) of Pell Grant recipients. In using FTE, institutions with a higher number of enrolled part-time students received less financial aid than those with more full-time students, the research found.
The use of the Pell grant also received scrutiny.
“People should be cognizant of how using Pell as a proxy for students having need can also tend to undercount Latino students,” said Janette Martinez, senior policy and research analyst at Excelencia. “There should be ways beyond just looking at Pell students to really count students’ needs,” she added.
To solve this issue, the analysis recommended that funding should be distributed using a head count of students rather than FTE “to better reflect the need of institutions and their students.”
Under the minority-serving institutions (MSIs) section of the CARES Act, $1 billion was set aside for MSIs, who are eligible for Title III and V grants. Despite HSIs making up half of all MSIs, only $210 million or 21% of the funding was received, the research said.
