WASHINGTON ― When it comes to advocating for greater reliance on public benefits for low-income individuals, the idea is already a tough political sell among anti-entitlement elected officials and segments of the electorate that view the benefits as handouts.
But what if those public benefits were being extended to community college students as a way to boost their chances of earning a credential?
That was the issue probed Thursday in a policy forum at the Center for Law and Social Policy, or CLASP. The forum highlighted findings from a project called Benefits Access for College Completion, or BACC. BACC is a multiyear demonstration at seven community colleges in six states meant to show how benefits such as SNAP, TANF, child care and transportation could help low-income students stay afloat and stay in school as they work toward a credential.
The impetus behind BACC is that existing financial aid programs are not enough to help students pay for college ― even at community colleges, where the average unmet need for low-income students is $6,000, according to Amy Ellen Duke-Benfield, project director and a senior policy analyst in postsecondary education at CLASP.
“One big barrier … is 40 percent of these students do not complete a degree in six years,” Duke-Benfield said. “That’s a lot of people we’re bleeding out along the way.
“If we’re serious about getting more students to the finish line, that means we have to put some real skin in the game and really think about what it’s going to take to be competitive globally and to have low-income people get competitive wages,” Duke-Benfield said.
