The Critical Role of Pell Grants in Black Higher Education

The U.S. Department of Education recently published a new report that includes important data by race on Pell Grant recipients. For more than 30 years Pell Grants have been providing low-income students with as much as $5,300 per year for college. Named for former Rhode Island senator Claiborne Pell, the grant program is by far the most important federal program for assisting low-income blacks attain higher education.

The new data shows that of all Pell Grant recipients who graduated from college in the 1999-2000 academic year, 11.8 percent were black. For all students who graduated from college that year who did not receive Pell Grants, only 5.8 percent were black. This shows the vital role of Pell Grants for African Americans in higher education.

For college graduates who received Pell Grants, 63.8 percent of African Americans completed their bachelor’s degree program within six years. For white college graduates who received Pell Grants, 62.6 percent completed their degree in six years. For black college graduates who did not receive a Pell Grant, 61.7 percent completed college in six years. For white college graduates who did not receive Pell Grants, 79.3 percent graduated within six years.

Another statistic of interest in the report is that for African-American college graduates who received a Pell Grant, 31.6 percent were enrolled in graduate school a year later. Only 24 percent of white college graduates who benefited from the Pell Grant program were enrolled in graduate school one year after earning their bachelor’s degree.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.