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Inmates may qualify for Pell Grants at BCC
Ellsworth learning celebration 2015
Barton and prison administrators applaud after inmates move their tassels after earning their high school diplomas during Barton Community Colleges 11th Annual Learning Celebration at Ellsworth Correctional Facility in this file photo from 2015. Barton administrators hope to implement a program that will also allow inmates to apply for federal Pell grants for continuing education. - photo by photo courtesy Barton Community College

Barton Community College administrators hope that Kansas Department of Correction inmates who receive education and training from BCC will soon be eligible for federal Pell Grants, Barton Vice President of Instruction Elaine Simmons said.

Simmons told the BCC Board of Trustees that the college applied to be part of the Experimental Sites Initiative (ESI), also known as the Second-Chance Pell, from the U.S. Department of Education.

Barton has a contract to provide education to inmates at the Larned and Ellsworth correctional facilities, but now faces competition from other Kansas colleges wanting to teach inmates. Last year, with a change of key administrators at the KDOC, a new Corrections Consortium was formed with 10 higher education providers, including BCC.

Nine of the 10 consortium members expressed interest in applying for the ESI Pell program. Barton was the first to submit its application, on Jan. 14, the day Simmons spoke to the BCC Board of Trustees via a teleconference link. However, the others had until Jan. 15, she said.

“If we are selected, this will give us the opportunity to award Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals,” Simmons said.

“Currently, inmates aren’t eligible for Pell Grants,” said Myrna Perkins, Barton’s financial aid director. If inmates to become eligible for the grants, the funds would only go to direct costs, so they wouldn’t receive any of the money personally. And inmates still wouldn’t be eligible for student loans, Perkins said.

The Higher Education Act provides that students who are incarcerated in a Federal or State penal institution are not eligible to participate in the Federal Pell Grant program, which provides need-based grants to low-income students to promote access to postsecondary education. The ESI was created in response to a 2014 study from the RAND Corporation that showed incarcerated individuals who participated in high-quality correctional education were 43% less likely to return to prison within three years than prisoners who didn’t participate in any correctional education programs, according to a Department of Education fact sheet.

Barton Board of Trustees Chairman Mike Johnson expressed concern that the new consortium has changed the college’s partnership with the KDOC.

“We’ve been a leader in this for many years,” Johnson said. “Now others who don’t know the process may hold us back.”

Simmons, however, responded with optimism. “We hope by demonstrating leadership some new opportunities will come our way as well,” she said.