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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01gt54kq948| Title: | A piece of the puzzle: State financial aid for incarcerated students |
| Contributors: | Hobby, Lauren Walsh, Brian Delaney, Ruth |
| Keywords: | Prisoners—Education—United States Student aid—United States Education, Higher—Economic aspects Universities and colleges—United States—Finance |
| Issue Date: | Jul-2019 |
| Publisher: | Vera Institute of Justice |
| Place of Publication: | Brooklyn, N.Y. |
| Description: | Colleges and corrections agencies have long partnered to offer education programs to people in prison. Prior to World War II, colleges and universities offered correspondence courses to incarcerated people, and later expanded offerings to include fully accredited academic programs taught in-person inside the prison walls. With the passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and the creation of Pell Grants for students with financial need in 1972, colleges began to use federal financial aid to fund programs in prisons. In 1994, however, Congress banned access to Pell Grants for people in prison—effectively cutting off educational opportunities beyond high school to more than a million incarcerated people and ending college programs in which 23,000 people had been enrolled. More than half of states followed suit, banning incarcerated students from participation in both need- and merit-based state financial aid programs. Although a handful of colleges persisted in offering postsecondary education in prison, interest among incarcerated students far outstripped the availability of programs. Although federal financial aid remains the primary funding source for low-income students in the United States, nearly all states also have financial aid programs meant to support college attendance among those who have limited means. However, like the federal Pell ban, many of these financial aid programs have bans on or other barriers to access for incarcerated students. This report contains a comprehensive overview of barriers to accessing state financial aid faced by incarcerated students and the colleges and universities in which they seek to enroll. By surveying state laws and financial aid policies, this report highlights the legal barriers preventing states from investing in the education of qualified students who are serving time in prison, reviews state and federal funding sources that are currently available, and suggests ways in which policymakers and education leaders can incorporate merit- and need-based state financial aid into the suite of funding sources. In addition, the Technical Appendix provides a state-by-state detailed description of need- and merit-based aid programs available to incarcerated students, as well as programs with statutory and other barriers. |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01gt54kq948 |
| Related resource: | https://www.vera.org/publications/a-piece-of-the-puzzle-state-financial-aid-for-incarcerated-students |
| Appears in Collections: | Monographic reports and papers (Publicly Accessible) |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a-piece-of-the-puzzle-complete.pdf | 2.47 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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