Once a fan of Pell Grants, Ohio University economist Richard Vedder, director of the Center for Affordability and Productivity, is in a Go to Pell! mood. Once a benefit for low-income students, Pell is on its way to becoming a universal entitlement, Vedder writes. Half of undergraduates now receive Pell Grants.
Why is this bad? To start with, “millions of middle-class Americans who would have gone to college anyway are getting the award.” That’s enabled colleges to raise tuition.
Pell is degrading academic quality, he adds.
Many academically unprepared students are bribed to go to college for which they flounder, or are helped through by deteriorating academic standards as manifested in such phenomenon as grade inflation.
Pell is wasting billions of dollars. The Obama Administration does not know or will not release the aggregate four-, five-, and six-year graduation rate of Pell Grant recipients.
. . . I would guess that for every full-time student with a Pell who graduates from college within six years, there are at least two who do not. For every success, there are double the number of those who mostly think of themselves as failures—unable to achieve their dream after six years of trying. IT IS A NATIONAL SCANDAL THAT THIS DATA IS BEING WITHHELD FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!
Pell rewards poor academic performance by giving more money to students who spend years taking classes without completing a degree.
The marginal student who takes courses for eight years and then drops outs gets twice as much Pell money, other things equal, as the otherwise identical student who works hard and graduates with honors in four years. There are utterly no performance standards, no academic expectations, and no “tough love” to encourage good performance.
Finally, Pell encourages “over-investment in higher education” that our nation can’t afford, Vedder concludes.
I had the opportunity to ask Education Secretary Arne Duncan about the graduation rate for Pell recipients at community colleges. He said he didn’t know, but assumed it was lower than the overall rate of 22 percent since low-income students are less likely to complete a degree.
Pell reforms are inevitable. I foresee stricter time limits on eligibility and requirements for half- to full-time enrollment. Stronger enforcement of academic progress rules — students are supposed to pass their classes to remain eligible — also would cut costs.
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[...] Pell Grants waste billions, reward poor academic performance and bribe unprepared students to go to college, a former Pell fan writes. [...]