What conditions are different from 1994 such that
this program would now be considered?
The
U.S. Department of Education is poised to announce a limited exemption
to the federal ban on prisoners receiving Pell Grants to attend college
while they are incarcerated.
Correctional education experts and
other sources said they expect the department to issue a waiver under
the experimental sites program, which allows the feds to lift certain
rules that govern aid programs in the spirit of experimentation. If the
project is successful, it would add to momentum for the U.S. Congress to consider overturning the ban it passed on the use of Pell for prisoners in 1994...
Even
a limited experiment will provoke controversy. Spending government
money on college programs for convicted criminals is an easy target for
conservative pundits and for some lawmakers from both political
parties...
The administration estimated that roughly 4,000 of the
60,000 incarcerated juvenile offenders would be eligible for federal
aid. That investment makes sense, they said, given that it costs an
average of $88,000 per year to lock up a juvenile offender. And inmates
of all ages are half as likely to go back to jail if they take college
courses.
I personally know of 3 people who apllied for pell grants,received them,went for one term of college and then the government pulled the rug out so to speak and never gave a reason why. One of them was my Grandaughter who applied in her senior year in high school,went to college for one term and then was in debt and could not go to any college anywhere until she paid back the money. It took her 3 years and of course any tax returns on her part time job went for this loan with interest of course. These 3 people were not prisoners or illegal aliens but regular American citizens who happened to be white.Now any future taxes they pay might possibly go for pell grants for prisoners!! as well as "entitlements." At the time I wrote my elected representative which was the same for my Grandaughter and that was a waste of time since I live in a democratic state. I personally did not vote or never will for a democrat in the future regardless of who it is.
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