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Op-Ed: From Summer Pell to Summer TAP

Commentary/Op-Ed - May 2017

Op-Ed: From Summer Pell to Summer TAP

The recently passed federal budget bill will do college students around the country a huge favor: extend Pell Grants for year-round study. New York should follow the federal government's lead by adopting this reform for its own need-based financial aid program, the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP).

by Tom Hilliard

Tags: economic growth economic opportunity higher education youth

Congress usually gets attention when members wage war on the floor. But the recently passed federal budget bill will do college students around the country a huge favor: extend Pell Grants for year-round study.

In this op-ed for the Buffalo News, Center for an Urban Future Senior Researcher Tom Hilliard asserts that New York should follow the federal government's lead by adopting this reform for its own need-based financial aid program, the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). Year-round Pell Grants make it easier for students, especially those in community college, to enroll in the summer semester, as well as the winter intersession. This reform allows students to accelerate credit accumulation and get to a degree faster.

Read the op-ed here.

This op-ed is a continuation of CUF's research on community colleges and higher education in New York. Most recently, CUF published Taking to TASC: Too Few New Yorkers Are Passing the High School Equivalency Exam, which is a first-ever look at the number of the New Yorkers that are taking and passing the new HSE exam since New York State changed test providers in 2014. Additionally, CUF has published a series of op-eds about higher education in New York and the Excelsior Scholarship including New York Can Help Students Afford College - And Graduate, California Shows New York How to Boost College Completion Along with Affordability, Adults Stranded Without a Credential: The High School Equivalency Emergency, and From Free College to Student Loan Debt. 

Photo credit: Angello Lopez/Unsplash

This commentary was made possible through generous support from The Clark Foundation and the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation. We are also grateful for support from Fisher Brothers for the Center for an Urban Future’s Middle Class Jobs Project, and ongoing support from a number of other philanthropic funders.

Center for an Urban Future (CUF) is an independent, nonprofit think tank that generates innovative policies to create jobs, reduce inequality and help lower income New Yorkers climb into the middle class. For 20 years, CUF has published accessible, data-driven reports on ways to grow and diversify the economy and expand opportunity that are anchored in rigorous research, not preconceived notions about outcome. Our work has been a powerful catalyst for policy change in New York City and serves as an invaluable resource for government officials, community groups, nonprofit practitioners and business leaders as they advocate for and implement policies to address some of New York’s biggest challenges and opportunities.