Redesigning the Pell Grant Program for the Twenty-First Century

Developed more than four decades ago, the Pell Grant program has expanded in sheer numbers without evolving structurally. While it continues to encourage recent high school graduates from poor families to undertake various forms of higher education, today’s limited funding prospects, low degree-completion rates, and workforce realities demand that the program be redesigned. In this article, the authors propose three major structural reforms. Taken together, the reforms that they propose would for the first time make Pell a true program, and not just a grant, thus inducing its beneficiaries to become full participants, and not just recipients.