Making the Second Time the Charm

Ben Miller discusses year-round Pell Grants and how the new budget agreement gives Congress a second chance to get the implementation right.

Students received some good news in the 2017 budget agreement unveiled Sunday night: the return of year-round Pell Grants. As early as this summer, this provision should help hundreds of thousands of low-income students finish college by giving additional grant aid to those who want to catch up on or accelerate their studies by attempting additional course work — such as taking summer courses.

This change also gives the U.S. Department of Education a second shot at implementing year-round Pell Grants. Congress previously approved year-round Pell Grants in the 2008 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, only to take them away three years later due to funding shortfalls in the program and unfair claims that the program was ineffective.

The above excerpt was originally published in Inside Higher Ed. Click here to view the full article.

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