The effort to overturn a ban on federal aid for incarcerated students gets new support from corporate backer and state elected officials.
Advocates of prison education who want to overturn a quarter-century ban on federal aid for incarcerated students have spent much of the past year slowly building support in Congress.
In the last week, those efforts have gained new momentum from outside Capitol Hill.
Telecom giant Verizon Communications issued an endorsement of bipartisan legislation to reinstate Pell Grants for incarcerated students. And a group of GOP governors said they support federal aid for those students, among other changes to the Pell program, in a letter to key Senate lawmakers.
While the prospects of Congress lifting the ban are still uncertain, the endorsements show the growing interest in prison education among industry and elected officials. Incarcerated students are receiving new attention from beyond their traditional advocates thanks to the broader criminal justice reform movement and to concerns over developing an educated labor force.