On March 30, 2010, President Obama signed the Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
Two major goals of this act are increasing financial assistance to minority students and investing in community colleges.
A big part of this act will be to increase funding to America’s Historically Black Colleges and Minority-Serving Institutions. Almost 60 percent of the nation’s 4.7 million minority students attend these schools; however, these schools have not received any addition funding to help offset expenses.
The Education Reconciliation Act will provide $2.55 billion in funding for these schools, which will be used to “renew, reform, and expand programming to ensure that students at these colleges and universities are given every chance to rise to their full potential.”
Another main goal of this act is to invest in community colleges. Community colleges are currently the largest part of our higher education system; however they have not received the proper funding. Many students feel like community college is just a stepping stone to a larger university.
However, community colleges are very important for non-traditional students and allow these students to prepare for careers in fields such as nursing and health information technology, among many others. The Education Reconciliation Act will provide $2 billion to community colleges to “develop, improve, and provide education and career training programs suitable for workers who are eligible for trade adjustment assistance.”
The Education Reconciliation Act will focus on students who would have had a hard time paying for their higher education in the past. It will provide much needed funding to schools that serve large percentages of minority students. It will also provide funding to be used towards the improvement of community college programs around the country. These non-traditional forms of higher education are in high demand, so it only makes sense that they should receive funding to meet this demand.
Via the White House.
posted on April 5th, 2010
by Kelsey, Student Blogger
Tags: community college, education policy, education reform
Posted in Financial Aid, News, Politics, Student loans | 6 Comments »
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