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Join us as we advocate for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated learners! On March 21, 2024, partners from across the country will gather in Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers to discuss how we can support equitable access to education.
Our priorities encompass digital equity, default student loan remediation, pay equity, ban the box for education, disability services, and ELL services. Under the overarching theme of Maintaining Momentum: Accountability, Oversight, and Metrics, we are urging legislators to prioritize continued oversight to ensure the effective implementation of these initiatives. By advocating for these measures, we aim to break down barriers and create pathways for educational advancement and success for all individuals, regardless of their past experiences or current circumstances. Learn more about these key issues.
On March 21, 2024, partners from across the country will gather in Washington, D.C. to meet with lawmakers and bring our priorities to forefront. We encourage all who are not able to attend to contact your representatives today to ask for action on the issues listed below.
The Digital Equity Act includes support for people in carceral environments. Yet, the pace and coverage of implementation remains a concern. As Prison Education Programs prepare to launch, many face completely manual processes for both financial aid participation and academic interaction.
Incarcerated learners contend with limited access to virtual education - both synchronous and asynchronous, as well as equitable learning management systems. Gaps in digital and information literacy creates significant barriers and vulnerabilities for folks reentering their communities after incarceration.
While there have been efforts to improve access to student debt relief for incarcerated students, the current landscape is still marked by challenges and limitations. Efforts are necessary to improve access to information, provide support in navigating the student loan system, and remove obstacles that prevent incarcerated individuals from accessing federal aid and enrolling in educational programs while incarcerated.
In pursuing higher education, incarcerated students often grapple with significant financial barriers. These include limited access to financial resources and student loan debt. Post-release, the burden of student loan debt will continue to disproportionately impact previously incarcerated people.
Under some jurisdictions, incarcerated people are paid minimal, hourly wages that are exponentially lower than any other workers in the USA. These wages limit the individual's ability to maintain dignity, prepare for reentry, and equitably participate in academic-based opportunities.
As incarcerated students gain skills via higher education and workforce programs, the ability to practice new skills via co-ops and apprenticeships remains inaccessible because of wage discrepancy. This limits student access to work experience and employer access to a skilled, remote workforce. Furthermore, artificially low wages also stymie post-release financial security and strain reentry support systems.
Even with studies demonstrating the extreme positive impact that higher education has on the success of people reentering society after incarceration, many college applications collect data on criminal history. Questions that seek this data are prohibitory and can discourage formerly incarcerated people from submitting their application.
Even though Pell Grant access was fully restored to incarcerated learners in July 2023, many higher education institutions still ask about prior convictions in their applications. It makes no sense to support access to higher education in prison with federal funds and financial aid, and to then allow schools to reject those same students as they reenter society. Discriminatory admissions practices exist that have no factual evidence base.
Incarcerated students with physical and/or learning disabilities may have limited access to education or face significant barriers as they try to achieve academic success. Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS) understand that students with disabilities need equitable support services to reach their full potential.
Higher education institutions are required to provide these services, but incarcerated students do not receive the same level of access to DSPS as their counterparts outside of prison. Since people with disabilities are overrepresented at all stages of the criminal justice system, oversight of DSPS is needed in higher education in prison programs.
Coverage and implementation of English Language Learning (ELL) services in higher education in prison programs is lacking. Students who need ELL services are often grouped with English-proficient learners, leading to higher program drop-out rates. Inaccessibility limits the level of educational attainment possible for ELL students, and creates an achievement gap, which reduces the potential of thousands of workers.
ELL-specific programs must compete with state funds allocated to general education. As a result, many facilities rely on outside volunteers or contractors to provide ELL instruction, limiting the quality of ELL services provided.
There is a need for wrap-around services that support ELL students through their higher education in prison programs and in reentry.
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