One article and podcast that caught my eye was, “In 50 years, the Pell Grant has helped over 80 million people go to college”, by Karen Bates & Gene Demby. A Pell Grant is a grant designed to help middle or lower-class families pay for college. It is directly given to the student to use however they want to. The Pell Grant was named after Senator Claiborne Pell, but the biggest influence was Lois Rice, a black woman who was an expert in education policy. She is known as “the mother of the pell grant”. Ms. Rice believed that someone shouldn’t take something and not give anything in return. She believed that she should help those who might be in the same situation as her. Ms. Rice had to work very hard to try to get the Pell Grant passed through the Senate. It was difficult because there were many in the Senate who opposed and believed that they would “spoil the students.” In addition, the Educational Institutions didn’t like the idea of their distribution power being taken away. Yet Ms. Rice kept pushing and fighting for the Pell Grant to be passed. She believed that it would help those in the middle and lower class who wanted to go to school, and indeed it did. As Karen said, today a student could almost get 7 thousand dollars in aid for the entire school year. As the title indicates Susan Rice, Lois Rice’s daughter, reached out to the government to find out how many people has the Pell Grant helped, and that’s when she found out it has helped over 80 million people.
This podcast was amazing at giving the story of the creation of the Pell Grant and also showing me how the Pell Grant has helped many. The Pell Grant is an amazing system that was instituted to help middle and lower-class families pay for college or ease their experience at college. Something I hope that can change in the future is that the Pell Grant can increase its amount, as college is getting costly and expensive. I would hate to see the Pell Grant be swept away as nothing compared to the prices of College. Nevertheless, this podcast was very enjoyable and a good topic to listen to.
The government needs more opportunities/contributions like the Pell Grant to aid those in need pursuing an education. Most people are discouraged in receiving higher education due to the cost and financial burden.
I agree with your points and think you summarized the article/podcast in a good way. Pell grants are great and help many people and education is vital for society. Great writing.
This podcast sounds interesting. Many college students are able to attend college because of Pell Grant and not many of them know about its origins or how difficult it was to get its passed. The government is starting to step forward to help students obtain higher education and like you I also hope that this only improves.