Support builds for expanding Pell eligibility to short-term certificates

Inside Higher Ed: Bipartisan support is building for federal legislation that would make Pell Grants available to students who are pursuing short-term certificates.

Under current law, the major federal grants for low-income students cannot be used to pay for academic programs that are shorter than 600 clock hours or 15 weeks in length. But a bill introduced in January by Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, and Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, would expand Pell eligibility to shorter job-training programs, with a minimum cutoff of 150 clock hours of instruction time over a period of at least eight weeks.

Read article