Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called for making the Second Chance Pell experiment permanent Tuesday in remarks at a commencement ceremony for Tulsa Community College’s prison education program.
The Obama administration launched the Second Chance program in 2015 to award Pell grants to incarcerated students through a limited number of institutions. The department’s experimental sites authority allowed it to bypass a quarter-century ban on federal aid to students behind bars.
The Trump administration, which has sought to make criminal justice a signature issue, has embraced the Second Chance program and in February renewed the program for another year. DeVos told students at the commencement Tuesday that she and President Trump “have faith in the power of redemption.”