Proposed bill would tell poor students they are guaranteed college funds - Washington Update

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 1, 1997 by Charles Dervarics

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.

To qualify for the guarantee, students must attend a school where the proportion of families in poverty exceeds 75 percent. Once they meet this requirement, students and their parents or guardians would receive correspondence from the Secretary of Education about their Pell eligibility.

Students would be guaranteed either the maximum Pell award at the time they leave grammar school or the Pell maximum when they begin postsecondary education. The 21st Century Scholars also would become automatically eligible for TRIO programs under the bill.

Federal grants are essential for low-income students, said Fattah, noting that poor students rely on grants to cover 25 percent of college tuition. Middle-income households depend on grants for only 2 percent of tuition, while for upper-income families the rate is below 1 percent.

The congressman said his plan offers more for low-income students than President Clinton's proposed tax breaks, which include a $10,000 tuition tax deduction and a $1,500 annual scholarship for the first two years of college.

"Approaches financed through the tax code will not benefit truly low-income families," Fattah said.

Those earning less than $20,000 a year have little or no tax liability, and would get few benefits from the tax deduction. Moreover, most of these families would be eligible for a Pell Grant at or above the $1,500 scholarship, which then may go to more affluent students.

However, President Bill Clinton has opened the door for major new investments in education, which Fattah dubbed, "a new era of commitment." Nonetheless, he said, "It is also crucial that we leave no child behind."

The bill has picked up two senior Democrats as co-sponsors, Reps. William Clay (D-Mo.) and Dale Kildee (D-Mich.). Clay is senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and also a CBC member. Kildee is the Democrats' third most senior member on the House education panel and a former chairman of its subcommittee on elementary and secondary education. Fattah's bill was referred to the Education and the Workforce panel.

As senior Democrat on the education panel, Clay also recently introduced President Clinton's education tax plans in the House. That bill, the Hope and Opportunity for Postsecondary Education Act of 1997, also was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

For more information on H.R. 777, contact Rep. Fattah's office at: (202) 225-4001.

RELATED ARTICLE: Top Universities Say Diversity Is Important for Education

Sixty-two top research universities said that diversity is "a value that is central to the very concept of education in our institutions."

The statement was adopted at the annual meeting here of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the membership organization of leading public and private research universities such as Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Brandeis, Rutgers, the University of Virginia, the University of Washington, the University of Southern California.

The AAU statement said that the member universities would continue to admit students "consistent with the broad principles of equal opportunity and equal protection that take many factors and characteristics into account -- including ethnicity, race, and gender."