{"id":3281,"date":"2019-04-29T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nacacadmitted.wpengine.com\/wordpress\/?p=3281"},"modified":"2019-04-23T08:44:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T12:44:14","slug":"bipartisan-bill-supports-college-access-for-the-incarcerated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2019\/04\/29\/bipartisan-bill-supports-college-access-for-the-incarcerated\/","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan Bill Supports College Access for the Incarcerated"},"content":{"rendered":"
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iStock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Higher education is often a pathway to finding a job, owning a home, and earning higher wages throughout a person\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>\n

But access to higher education for the nation\u2019s prison population has faced significant challenges over the past few decades.<\/p>\n

A new bipartisan bill making its way through Congress would restore Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals, giving many the ability to pay for higher education and workforce training.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Restoring Education and Learning (REAL) Act<\/a> aims to reduce recidivism rates and incarceration costs by increasing access to higher education. It was recently introduced by US Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI, Mike Lee (R-UT), and Dick Durbin (D-IL).<\/p>\n

Companion legislation in US House of Representatives is being led by Representatives Danny Davis (D-IL), Jim Banks (R-IN.), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and French Hill (R-AR).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we give people in prison an opportunity to earn an education, our communities are safer, taxpayers save money, and we can end the cycle of recidivism,\u201d Schatz said in a news release<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThe REAL Act would restore a program we know already works and give people a real chance to rebuild their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pell grant assistance was taken away from incarcerated individuals in 1994. But in 2015, the tides started to turn.<\/p>\n

The Obama administration announced a pilot program called Second Chance Pell<\/a>, giving about 10,000 inmates access to grants and higher education. This experimental program is ongoing and would need action like the REAL Act to take it past the pilot phase.<\/p>\n

NACAC, along with other leading education groups, endorses the REAL Act.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ashley Dobson is NACAC\u2019s senior communications manager for content and social media. You can reach her at\u00a0adobson@nacacnet.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Higher education is often a pathway to finding a job, owning a home, and earning higher wages throughout a person\u2019s lifetime. But access to higher education for the nation\u2019s prison population has faced significant challenges over the past few decades. A new bipartisan bill making its way through Congress would restore Pell Grant eligibility for … Continue reading Bipartisan Bill Supports College Access for the Incarcerated<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college-admission-in-the-news","category-cost-of-college","category-value-of-college"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Ashley Dobson","author_link":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/author\/ashley-dobson\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peWmJq-QV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/admitted.nacacnet.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}