U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and U.S. Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) are requesting that both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees maintain support for the federal Pell Grant program for college students.
“The Pell Grant is a vital resource for expanding access and affordability to higher education for some of America’s most vulnerable and non-traditional students. In AY2013-2014, roughly 83 percent of Pell Grant recipients came from a household earning $30,000 or less annually,” Scott and Walker wrote in an April 27 letter to the leadership of the committees.
They said access to Pell Grants is particularly important to students attending historically black colleges and other minority serving institutions. Around 70 percent of students attending a historically black college in 2017 will use a Pell Grant, they wrote.
Scott and Walker also urged them to establish year-round access to Pell Grants.
“Giving students the opportunity to use a Pell Grant on a year-round basis provides an incentive to accelerate their degree and stay on track for graduation,” they wrote. “Statistics show that first generation college students are more likely to take out loans to finance their education, and students who use financial aid, but do not graduate, are more likely to fall behind on repaying education-related debt than those who graduate.”