Podcast: The Key with Inside Higher Ed – Debate: Using Pell Grants for Very Short-Term Programss

Posted by Inside Higher Ed on May 4, 2021

This week’s episode explores the potential — and the potential pitfalls — of changing the main federal student grant program to cover enrollment in short-term training programs.

Congress is considering expanding use of the federal government’s main postsecondary grant program to cover enrollment in training programs as short as eight weeks. Supporters — community college leaders, corporations and advocates for a more skilled workforce – believe the change is essential to serve tens of millions of Americans who don’t have the money or time for degree and other longer-term programs. Those who oppose “short-term Pell,” though, say proponents exaggerate the quality and value of most short-term credentials and that this change will exacerbate existing equity gaps that leave Black, brown and low-income Americans behind.

Listen here.