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Project to improve South Cross Valley Expressway near Nanticoke underway

<p>In a proposed pilot program set to be announced Friday by the Obama administration, federal and state prisoners could soon be eligible for federal Pell grants to take college courses while behind bars.</p><p>It would be the first time prisoners would qualify for the grants since 1994, when an amendment to the 1965 Higher Education Act removed their eligibility. Prisoners had been eligible for the aid since 1972.</p><p>As of press time, additional details on the proposal were scarce.</p><p>Department of Education spokeswoman Dorie Nolt declined to disclose any specifics on the length of the program, which prisoners would be eligible and how it would work.</p><p>Tim Murtaugh, communications director for U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, said in an e-mail Thursday that Barletta&#8217;s office had not had an opportunity to review the proposal and could not comment.</p><p>A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, said the lawmaker was traveling on Thursday, and efforts to obtain comment from Cartwright proved unsuccessful.</p><p>A full explanation is expected Friday when federal officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, will visit a state correctional facility in Maryland.</p><p>The prison has a partnership with nearby Goucher College, a liberal arts school that began accepting prisoners in 2012 but does so without the aid of federal funding.</p><p>Previewing the program, Duncan said Monday that the administration wants to develop &#8220;experimental sites that will make Pell grants available&#8221; to inmates to help them get job training and secure a productive life after they are released.</p><p>By setting up the proposed &#8220;experimental sites,&#8221; the administration would be seeking to get around the ban with a pilot program.</p><p>Asked for more details, Duncan told reporters in a call after the speech, &#8220;Stay tuned.&#8221;</p><p>The experimental sites section of the Higher Education Act of 1965 gives federal officials flexibility to test the effectiveness of temporary changes to the way federal student aid is distributed. The tests could give the Education Department data to support possible revisions to laws or regulations.</p><p>More than 2 million students now receive Pell grants, according to Duncan. The maximum award for the 2015-2016 school year is $5,775.</p><p>On Friday, Duncan will visit Goucher College&#8217;s Prison Education Partnership. More than 70 students are enrolled in the college through the partnership. The inmates don&#8217;t pay tuition, and books and supplies are provided at no cost, according to the partnership.</p><p>&#8220;Getting a college education takes an incredible amount of hard work,&#8221; Amy Roza, director of the partnership, said in an interview. &#8220;The program helps with skills like critical thinking and problem solving.&#8221;</p><p>About 70 percent of students in the program are first-generation college students, Roza said.</p><p>Education Department Undersecretary Ted Mitchell this week called Pell grants &#8220;one of the key levers that we have&#8221; to increase the college completion rate.</p><p>Advocates for expanding federal student aid to prisoners point to societal benefits. A 2013 Rand study found that inmates who took part in education programs behind bars had 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison than inmates who had not.</p><p>Supporters say the correctional education programs are cost-effective compared with the costs of re-incarceration.</p><p>U. S. Reps. Donna Edwards, D-Md., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., in May introduced legislation that would reinstate Pell Grant eligibility for federal and state prisoners. At the time, Edwards said it would go a long way to helping curb the nation&#8217;s high incarceration rate through education.</p><p>However, despite a formal announcement, they program is already receiving criticism from Republicans.</p><p>House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minnesota, said if the Obama administration wants to see change, &#8220;it must stop governing through executive fiat and start working with the people&#8217;s elected representatives in Congress.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Unfortunately, the administration has chosen once again to stifle an important debate by acting unilaterally and without regard for the law,&#8221; Kline said in a news release.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">FILE - In this May 12, 2015 file photo, Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks in Arlington, Va. The Obama administration is taking steps to expand a student aid grant program _ so prisoners would be eligible. Duncan and Attorney General Loretta Lynch have scheduled a visit to the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup, Md., Friday to announce the plans. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_104929906-9074fcd2615548c9934092cec541f6471.jpg</photo0><caption0>FILE - In this May 12, 2015 file photo, Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks in Arlington, Va. The Obama administration is taking steps to expand a student aid grant program _ so prisoners would be eligible. Duncan and Attorney General Loretta Lynch have scheduled a visit to the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup, Md., Friday to announce the plans. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_104929906-08585ce0c4d54312b006daba01f700ab1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">In the photo taken July 21, 2015, Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks in East Haven, Conn. The Obama administration is taking steps to expand a student aid grant program _ so prisoners would be eligible. Lynch and Education Secretary Arne Duncan and have scheduled a visit to the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup, Maryland, on Friday to announce the plans. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_104929906-08585ce0c4d54312b006daba01f700ab1.jpg</photo1><caption1>In the photo taken July 21, 2015, Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks in East Haven, Conn. The Obama administration is taking steps to expand a student aid grant program _ so prisoners would be eligible. Lynch and Education Secretary Arne Duncan and have scheduled a visit to the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup, Maryland, on Friday to announce the plans. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer C. Kerr</p><p>Associated Press</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Joe Dolinsky, staff writer, contributed to this report.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Obama administration seeks to provide federal student aid to prisoners