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Expanding Pell Grant eligibility to students in short-term credential programs increased enrollment and completion but not employment or earnings, according to a new federal report.
The U.S. Education Department ran two pilot programs between 2012 and 2017; one gave income-eligible students with a bachelor’s degree access to Pell funding for short occupational training programs lasting up to a year, and the other allowed income-eligible students without a degree to enroll in programs lasting as little as eight weeks.
For students with a bachelor’s degree, access to short-term Pell boosted enrollment in credential programs by 26 percentage points and completion rates by 17 points. For those without a bachelor’s in very short-term programs, enrollment rose by 15 percentage points and completion by nine percentage points. But for both groups, rates of employment and average income were lower than for students who did not receive Pell funding, according to data gathered between 2020 and 2021—about three years after students who participated in the pilot were expected to graduate.
“Although the pandemic-induced recession and ensuing period of high unemployment may have hurt students’ job prospects, there were no differences in employment or earnings between students offered and not offered a Pell Grant in the fourth quarter of 2021, when the job market had largely recovered,” the report authors wrote. “The cost of expanding Pell Grant eligibility—about $1,800 per student in this study—should be considered against the evidence on the economic benefits of short and very short-term programs.”
The report’s insights could influence the campaign to expand Pell access to students in short-term credential programs, which critics worry could mean less Pell funding for students in two- and four-year programs. Short-term Pell legislation has been stymied in Congress but has a better chance of passing through the new Republican-controlled Legislature.
