Pell Grants Must Begin Funding Certificate Programs
Democrats have focused their concerns on increasing the Pell Grant funding of credit-bearing programs at community colleges and applaud its inclusion in Biden’s Build Back Better Act. This effort is misplaced for two reasons. First, the vast majority of those attending, particularly black and Latino students, already have substantial financial aid. Second, what the most vulnerable students need is not a pathway to four year college degrees – the dominant role of urban community colleges – but a pathway to occupational training that can be built upon; and funding short-term noncredit-bearing certificate programs can better serve vulnerable students.
The four year college-for-all goal was on full display in a recent Hechinger Report. It highlighted a black student who attends the Chicago campus of Northeastern Illinois University and is close to graduating. The student noted, “Of the 20 Black freshmen he remembers becoming friendly with at the start of that year, he said 17 didn’t make it past the first semester.” The story continues,
At Northeastern Illinois, only 11 percent of Black students graduated within six years in 2019. White students at Northeastern Illinois University are five times more likely to graduate than Black students, according to federal data. Nationally, white students at public colleges are two and a half times more likely to graduate than Black students.
Despite this evidence, the authors focus on the successful student and solely on policies that might improve the number of successes.
And graduation rates from community college are even more dismal: black youth have a six year graduate rate of only 27.3 percent. Results are lower for men than women so that the graduation rate for black men is even lower. In 2018, 24.3 percent of black but only 18.8 percent of white men, 25 to 29 years old, had some college but no degree. While certainly many dropouts obtain decent employment, others do not and find their way into the disconnected population. Among those 16 to 24 years old, just over 20 percent of black men but less than 10 percent of white men had neither paid employment nor school enrollment.
More broadly, prior to the pandemic, the vast majority of ACT-tested black high school graduates did not perform well in core areas: reading, writing, math, and science. Only 11 percent of black graduates performed at college levels in at least three of these subjects, compared to 50 and 58 percent of white and Asian graduates respectively. Unfortunately, these skill deficiencies preclude many from entering high demand occupational training.
A few years ago, I evaluated reentry programs for the previously incarcerated. The vast majority entered the community college academic programs. At Bronx Community College they were shepherded by the Futures Now, a program with a committed staff to provide broad support. Despite the best efforts, only one-quarter of these students completed the two-year degree.
Others enrolled in programs at Hostos Community College that provided the background necessary for entry into carpentry, electrical and plumbing apprenticeship programs. However, so few of these students were capable of successful completing these pre-apprenticeship programs that two of them had to be cancelled. Thus, neither academic nor many of the most desirable occupational programs are realistic alternatives for a substantial share of skill deficient youth.
Many vulnerable youth have complicated lives: families to support so that can ill afford to spend significant time away from the paid workforce. Together with their past adverse experiences in educational settings, high dropout rates from academic programs are not surprising. Short-term stackable certificates would enable these students to experience academic success for the first time. With the first certificate they gain employment and subsequent certificates enable them to advance within their employment field. Business and trade associations support expanding Pell Grants to fund short-term non-credit certificate programs, particularly if they are “stackable” and follow industry-approved guidelines. Both the Manufacturing and Hotel industries have articulated sequences and there are stackable certificates in medical and IT fields.
Aware that there are substantial misgivings, Pell Grant funding advocates believe there must be important guiderails: job placement and earnings data should be used to screen covered programs; cap funding to individual institutions: and an emphasis on partnerships with local industries. If done correctly, short-term noncredit certificates provide an effective way to increase employment and earnings.
Unfortunately, influential voices have continued to reject this expansion of Pell Grant funding because they are unwilling to sacrifice the quest for four-year degrees for all. As the liberal Third Way noted, “Proposals to permit non-credit programs to access higher education dollars in the same way as programs where students earn credits could make it even harder for these credentials to stack towards a degree for students.” The Brookings Institute goes further: credit-bearing community college certificate programs are the only legitimate alternative. It pointedly associates “racialized tracking in education” with “the subsequent proliferation of nonaccredited, online, and informal training options that fail to effectively signal quality in the labor market.” Their report highlights how credit-bearing stackable certificates can be part of a long-term strategy to obtain four-year degrees.
A large share of high school graduates currently lacks sufficient skills to succeed in meaningful academic or demanding occupational programs. These failure rates require alternatives but woke liberalism puts its aspirational visions ahead of realistic goals. As a result Pell Grants to fund short-term noncredit-bearing stackable certificates is not a part of the House version of the reconciliations bill. Hopefully, this position can be reversed so that more vulnerable youth can more ahead.
Robert Cherry is recently retired Brooklyn College economics professor and completing a book on race-related policies.
