Joe Sumner has a problem.
He runs the New College Institute in Martinsville, a state entity that, among other things, sponsors training courses for how to get certified as a fiber optic technician. Those are jobs that are in high demand as the nation makes a push for universal broadband; graduates can start at $60,000. The problem: Some potential students can’t afford the cost of the classes, which might run from $500 to $1,600.
Tim Kaine has a solution.
Virginia’s junior senator is one of the leading proponents of changing the rules for the federal Pell Grants to make them available to students in what he calls “high-quality, short-term training programs.”
You’d think these things would be easy to solve, but Congress was not designed to solve things quickly.
Kaine told me he’s been working on this bill for eight years. Of course, he told me that last year, when he visited Mountain Gateway Community College in Alleghany County, so that’s really nine years for this bill. He told me last year it sometimes takes seven years to get something enacted in Congress. You’ll notice that’s longer than the term of a U.S. senator, and more than three times the length of the term of a House member.
One of the frustrating things about this measure is there seems to be a broad, bipartisan consensus in favor of extending Pell Grants to “high-quality, short-term training programs,” but Congress is — to my way of thinking — inefficient about how it does its business. In Richmond, there are deadlines. In Washington, there are not. In Richmond, every bill that’s introduced meets its fate by a certain time — it’s either passed, or killed, or sometimes politely killed by simply being left in a committee that’s not scheduled to meet again. In Washington, well, it’s much like a baseball game — long periods of time where nothing seems to happen legislatively until suddenly everything happens at once. When Congress does act, it’s often in the form of one of those catch-all “omnibus” bills, which means a measure like Kaine’s needs something to piggyback on.
Here’s how Higher Ed Dive described the proposal: “Legislation like this is typically not passed as a standalone bill. Rather, it is usually attached to a larger legislative package like an omnibus bill. Experts said the bill could theoretically be part of a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. But despite being roughly a decade overdue, experts said reauthorization is unlikely this year.”
When I spoke with Kaine recently after a video call to rural economic development leaders in Abingdon, he was much more optimistic about the bill being passed. Both Democratic and Republican leaders have cleared it to come up before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (another difference between Richmond and Washington; in Richmond, a bill would come up automatically). “There are very good prospects of getting a bill and going forward,” he told me.
The top Republican and top Democrat on the House Education and Labor Committee also want a bill, which illustrates two other points to be made.
To call this Kaine’s bill is true but not the whole truth. I focus on him because he’s one of Virginia’s senators. However, the Senate version is co-sponsored by a Republican, Mike Braun of Indiana. I suspect in Indiana they refer to this as Braun’s bill.
In the House, there have been two versions of the bill: a Republican version introduced by Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York (with co-sponsorship by the committee chair, Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina), and a Democratic version introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Newport News. On Tuesday, they announced they’d come together (along with Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-California) on a single version of the bill, which seems to suggest some movement is afoot.
“Currently, you cannot use a Pell Grant for short-term training programs, like IT or welding courses,” Scott said in a statement. “As a result, many adults cannot afford to attend or complete courses that will help them get good-paying jobs and compete in the modern economy. This is a disservice to our students, workers, and employers. … By providing adults more opportunities to participate in quality training programs, Congress will ensure that more Americans have a pathway to the middle class, and businesses can hire the well-trained workers they need.”
The Republicans involved used similiar language in their formal statements. “America has always been a skills-based economy, so it’s critical that we retool the Pell Grant to match the education needs of both students and employers,” Foxx said. “This bill is a major win for students and workers, as well as employers who are desperately looking to fill in-demand jobs.”
In the past, the difference between Democrats and Republicans on this bill hasn’t been over the principle but the details. The reason that Kaine calls these “high-quality, short-term training programs” is to emphasize the “high-quality” part. That’s been a point of contention. “How do you measure what program is high quality, and the two sides have differed slightly,” he said.
In fact, that was the headline of a story in April in Higher Ed Dive: “Legislators want short-term Pell — but can’t agree on details.” That’s what has sunk this idea in the past. Last year, Kaine had hoped to attach his measure — dubbed the JOBS Act, for Jumpstarting Our Businesses by Supporting Students — to various other bills, but each time legislative details got in the way. Politico blamed “disputes over exactly which programs should be eligible for the Pell expansion.” If you agree with the notion that non-academic students in community college should be able to qualify for Pell Grants just as much as academic ones, these kinds of disagreements are enough to make you scream.
So why should we be any more optimistic this time around?
For one thing, the politics do seem to be in favor of the concept: In May, Inside Higher Ed reported: “Momentum building for Pell Grant expansion.” The Biden administration has also sent word that it would back the concept. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified before the House committee in May and said he was “open” to the idea: “I’ve frequently said that if we’re asking our schools and districts to evolve, we need to evolve also. I am interested in looking at ways to expand it to short-term Pell, with increased accountability to make sure that the students are getting a benefit from it.” Now we have both the Republican and Democratic proponents in the House agreeing on a single bill; that seems a big deal. If we can get a Democratic administration, and Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress all in general agreement, surely we can get them into more specific agreement, right?
Kaine says one thing making this proposal more urgent is a tight labor market — the so-called worker shortage. “What worries me most about the American economy right now is workforce,” he said. He’s not alone. You’ll recall that Gov. Glenn Youngkin was keenly interested — some might say too keenly interested — in who the new chancellor of the state community college system would be because he wants to get more students into, yes, short-term training programs. And that new chancellor, David Doré, has made it clear that his priority is getting more adults of non-traditional college age into the system — and that’s mostly through various short-term training programs. You can read the story by Cardinal’s education reporter Lisa Rowan here and my column on the system’s enrollment increases here. Or you can go with this short version: We have jobs going unfilled, and we have people who want those jobs but too often they lack the specific skills. If we can get them into community college programs (or similar programs such as those through the New College Institute), they can get qualified — but we can’t get them in if they can’t afford them. Making those students eligible for Pell Grants would help fix at least part of that problem.
Kaine says there are three things we need to do to better align workers with jobs: more child care, immigration reform and job training. The JOBS Act would address one of those three. He predicts eventually there will be some movement on immigration reform, too, because industries are pushing for more workers. “The American birth rate isn’t going to change and even if it did it won’t affect things for 25 years,” he said.
Immigration reform, though, remains a hard lift. By comparison, expanding Pell Grants ought to be easy, and you see how long that’s taken. A year ago, here’s how Kaine described the expanding Pell eligibility: “I think it’s going to be dramatic and transformational. If we can get it passed, it will do an awful lot of good for an awful lot of people.”
Those potential students should hope Washington can work this out.
