‘Early Pell Promise’ puts students on college track

By the time our young people reach 8^th grade and prepare to enter high school, they should know that if they work hard throughout high school and want to attend college, they can. Unfortunately, many young people who come from low-income families may feel there’s no hope or reason to work hard and get good grades because there’s no way they can afford to go to college or get advanced skills training.

And, even though there is some help available, many students don’t learn about available scholarships and financial aid, like Pell grants, until it’s too late to qualify or they’ve already given up hope.

{mosads}So I propose we make a deal with 8^th graders who come from low-income families – and we let them know while they’re in 8th grade:  If you stay in school, work hard and get good grades,  you will receive two years of full Pell grants to help you go to college.

I call it the Early Pell Promise, and I’ve introduced legislation that would make it available to students from low-income families across America.

For students, this can be a chance of a lifetime.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those with a post-secondary degree are twice as likely to be employed and will earn 84 percent more than those who have just a high school diploma.

This is also an essential investment in growing our economy by growing our middle-class.

As Americans we believe that a person who works hard should be able to get ahead. But recent studies show that a student’s family income – not the student’s achievement – is the most reliable indicator of that student’s likelihood to go to college and graduate. So no matter how hard a young person may work, and no matter how well he or she performs in high school classes, that student may still fall short of their dream, because they see no hope to be able to afford studies beyond high school.

Pell Grants are one of the most important ways to provide that hope.  So it makes sense to do everything possible to make sure parents and students are aware of them -early!

With the Early Pell Promise we can give students hope for college at exactly the moment it can make a lasting difference in their lives.

We have already seen the difference that a program like this can make in the real world. In Kalamazoo, Michigan, the Kalamazoo Promise has been in effect for 10 years, with anonymous donors paying the full college tuition for Kalamazoo Public School students who graduate and wish to attend a public Michigan university but need help to do so.  Since the program’s inception, the rate of Kalamazoo students earning their bachelor’s degree has shot up by one-third!  The Kalamazoo Promise is giving real hope and opportunity to a generation of young people.

In just one city, hundreds of students are getting a college diploma who may have never enrolled, or who may have had to drop out when the costs of college caught up to them. Having earned their college diploma, these students will have higher employment rates and higher earnings and the opportunity for a better life.

Now imagine if we did something like this nationally, through the Early Pell Promise. Those hundreds of students will turn into thousands – and the millions of dollars in future economic growth will turn into billions.

Most importantly, we can restore the American dream by making sure every young person can use education as a ladder to pull themselves up toward a better life. That is how this country was built, and that is a promise we can renew, beginning with the Early Pell Promise.

Stabenow is Michigan’s senior senator, serving since 2001. She sits on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; the Budget; the Energy and Natural Resources; and the Finance committees.