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.
