Culminating a months-long regulatory process, the U.S. Education Department on Monday published final regulations for the Workforce Pell Grant program, which will guide stakeholders as they implement the new eligibility that begins July 1.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) had submitted formal comments on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), outlining the sector’s concerns and priorities. The NPRM was based on consensus reached in the negotiated rulemaking process, and, as expected, the final differed very little from the proposed regulation, which in turn reflected ED’s perspectives, though the rule generally hewed closely to the statute itself.
But the department rejected AACC’s major “asks” for changes. This includes ED’s unilateral decision to require that job placement be in the occupation for which training was provided (after a three-year phase-in period), as well as a requirement that programs have met all relevant standards for a full year before they can get approved by a state. This is a more exacting standard than the one in the statute, which in this case AACC had urged ED to simply follow.
A significant change
The final rule does contain some key changes from the NPRM. One important one for community colleges relates to the “value-added earnings calculation.” The NPRM was revised to exclude from this value-added calculation program completers who are enrolled in any other educational program at the institution or at another eligible institution during the calendar year for which the secretary obtains earnings information.
The final workforce Pell regulation allows the implementation process to move towards its final stages, and see programs approved. However, it is not clear that any Workforce Pell programs will participate by July 1, though some states are much further along in establishing policies for approving programs than others.
Fortunately, the Workforce Pell authority is permanent, and there is no eligibility deadline. And, while some policy advocates have asserted that Workforce Pell will place significant financial stress on the rest of the Pell Grant program, these concerns are misguided – Workforce Pell is formally estimated to add less than 1% to the overall cost of the program. For more resources on Workforce Pell, visit AACC’s website.
