Cynthia Brougher
Legislative Attorney
A recurring issue in constitutional law concerns the extent to which the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment imposes constraints on the provision of public aid to private sectarian schools. The U.S. Supreme Court’s past jurisprudence construed the clause to impose severe restrictions on aid given directly to sectarian elementary and secondary schools but to be less restrictive when given to colleges or indirectly in the form of tax benefits or vouchers. The Court’s later decisions loosened the constitutional limitations on both direct and indirect aid.
This report gives a brief overview of the evolution of the Court’s interpretation of the Establishment Clause in this area and analyzes the categories of aid that have been addressed by the Court. The report explains which categories have been held to be constitutionally permissible or impermissible, both at the elementary and secondary school level and at the postsecondary level.
Date of Report: April 5, 2011
Number of Pages: 10
Order Number: R40195
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Shannon M. Mahan
Specialist in Education Policy
The Federal Pell Grant program, authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA; P.L. 89-329), is the single largest source of federal grant aid supporting postsecondary education students. The program is estimated to have provided over $33 billion to approximately 8.7 million undergraduate students in FY2010. For FY2011, the total maximum Pell Grant was funded at $5,550. The program is funded primarily through annual appropriations, although mandatory appropriations play a smaller, yet increasing, role in the program.
Pell Grants are need-based aid that is intended to be the foundation for all federal student aid awarded to undergraduates. There is no absolute income threshold that determines who is eligible or ineligible for Pell Grants. Nevertheless, Pell Grant recipients are primarily low-income. In FY2008, an estimated 62% of Pell Grant recipients considered to be dependent upon their parents had a total family income at or below $30,000. Of Pell Grant recipients considered to be independent of their parents, an estimated 83% had a total family income at or below $30,000.
The Pell Grant program has garnered considerable attention in Congress over the past several years. Most recently, H.R. 1473, or the Department of Defense Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011, as introduced in the House of Representatives on April 11, 2011, would maintain a $5,550 total maximum award in the upcoming award year (AY) 2011-2012 while providing $23 billion in discretionary appropriations for the program in FY2011. H.R. 1473 would also amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA; P.L. 89-329), by eliminating a provision that allows for a student to receive two Pell Grant awards in the same award year. The estimated savings in mandatory spending related to the elimination of this provision would be re-directed for future use in the program as specified annual mandatory appropriations beginning in FY2012 and continuing in all subsequent years. In March 2010, the SAFRA Act, passed as part of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA; P.L. 111-152), established indefinite mandatory appropriations beginning in FY2010 to provide for increases to the maximum award amount funded with annual discretionary appropriations. The program also received substantial discretionary and mandatory supplemental funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA; P.L. 111-5). The statutory authority for the Pell Grant program was most recently reauthorized by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA; P.L. 110-315).
The Pell Grant program recently experienced substantial increases in program costs—largely due to legislative changes that have led to increased benefits for more students, increases in the number of students enrolling in college and applying for Pell Grant aid, and a weakened economy. These factors, combined with inadequate discretionary and mandatory appropriations in some years, and catch-up appropriations in other years, led to funding shortfalls and surpluses in the program from FY2008 to FY2010.
Many of the issues concerning the Pell Grant program that confront Congress include potential challenges associated with funding the program, both in the short term and the long term. In the short-term, substantial discretionary appropriations may be required in FY2012 to ensure current award levels are maintained, leading to the program comprising an increasingly larger share of the discretionary funding allocated for programs that are funded in Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education appropriations. As a long-term strategy, Congress could also consider ways to change the distribution of overall benefits by targeting aid to the most needy students or by revising the program’s award rules and eligibility parameters.
Date of Report: April 13, 2011
Number of Pages: 50
Order Number: R41437
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Rebecca R. Skinner
Specialist in Education Policy
Erin D. Lomax
Analyst in Education Policy
The Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2004 (P.L. 108-199), which combined six appropriations bills—including the FY2004 District of Columbia Appropriations Act—authorized and appropriated funding for the Opportunity Scholarship program, a federally funded school voucher program, for the District of Columbia. It also provided funding for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) for the improvement of public education and the State Education Office for public charter schools. The provision of federal funds for DCPS, public charter schools, and vouchers is commonly referred to as the “three-prong approach” to supporting elementary and secondary education in the District of Columbia.
More specifically, the Opportunity Scholarship program was enacted under the DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003, which was included in P.L. 108-199. The Opportunity Scholarship program provides scholarships (also known as vouchers) to students in the District of Columbia to attend participating private elementary and secondary schools, including religiously affiliated private schools. Appropriations for the program were authorized through FY2008. While the program is no longer authorized, the 111th Congress provided appropriations for the program in FY2009 under the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (P.L. 111-8) and in FY2010 under the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117).
P.L. 111-8 specified that the use of any funds in any act for Opportunity Scholarships after the 2009-2010 school year shall be available only upon reauthorization of the program and the adoption of legislation by the District of Columbia approving such reauthorization. P.L. 111-117 eliminated this restriction on funding and provided continued appropriations for the Opportunity Scholarship program, as well as school improvement funding for DCPS and public charter schools in the District of Columbia. It provided $42.2 million to DCPS, $20 million for public charter schools, and $13.2 million for Opportunity Scholarships. The latter, however, could be used to provide private school vouchers only to students who received scholarships in the 2009- 2010 school year.
The 112th Congress has introduced two bills that would reauthorize the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act of 2011 (S. 206) and the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (H.R. 471). H.R. 471 was ordered reported (H.Rept. 112-36) by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 17, 2011. On March 30, 2010, H.R. 471 was considered by the House. It passed without amendment by a vote of 225 to 195. S. 206 was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. No further legislative action has occurred with respect to S. 206.
Date of Report: April 1, 2011
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: R40574
Price: $29.95
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Andorra Bruno
Specialist in Immigration Policy
Supporters of comprehensive immigration reform have urged the President and Congress to pursue reform legislation. While prospects for comprehensive reform—especially for proposals including large-scale legalization of unauthorized aliens—may have dimmed since the November 2010 elections, some supporters are advocating passage of more limited legislation to address the status of unauthorized alien students. Such legislation is commonly referred to as the “DREAM Act.”
Unauthorized aliens in the United States are able to receive free public education through high school. They may experience difficulty obtaining higher education, however, for several reasons. Among these reasons is a provision enacted in 1996 that prohibits states from granting unauthorized aliens certain postsecondary educational benefits on the basis of state residence, unless equal benefits are made available to all U.S. citizens. This prohibition is commonly understood to apply to the granting of “in-state” residency status for tuition purposes. Unauthorized alien students also are not eligible for federal student financial aid. More broadly, as unauthorized aliens, they are not legally allowed to work and are subject to being removed from the country.
Multiple DREAM Act bills have been introduced in recent Congresses to address the unauthorized student population. Most have proposed a two-prong approach of repealing the 1996 provision and enabling some unauthorized alien students to become U.S. legal permanent residents (LPRs) through an immigration procedure known as cancellation of removal. While there are other options for dealing with this population, this report deals exclusively with the DREAM Act approach in light of the considerable congressional interest in it.
In the 111th Congress, the House approved DREAM Act language as part of an unrelated bill, the Removal Clarification Act of 2010 (H.R. 5281). However, the Senate failed, on a 55-41 vote, to invoke cloture on a motion to agree to the House-passed DREAM Act amendment and the bill died at the end of the Congress. The House-approved language was the same as that in the standalone Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010 (H.R. 6497) and differed in key respects from earlier versions of the DREAM Act.
It is unclear whether the 112th Congress will take up DREAM Act legislation.
Date of Report: March 22, 2011
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: RL33863
Price: $29.95
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Rebecca R. Skinner
Specialist in Education Policy
Erin D. Lomax
Analyst in Education Policy
The 112th Congress is considering two bills that would reauthorize the District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program (DC OSP): the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act of 2011 (S. 206) and the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act (H.R. 471). H.R. 471 was ordered reported (H.Rept. 112-36) by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 17, 2011. S. 206 was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
While both H.R. 471 and S. 206 would provide for the continuation of the DC OSP, making relatively minor adjustments to the program design, both bills would make substantial changes to the program evaluation. In this report, both bills are compared with current law provisions to identify proposed changes to the DC OSP. Then particular attention is devoted to changes both bills would make to the program evaluation requirements, including student selection and student assessment requirements, that could have substantial implications for the conduct and design of the evaluation.
Date of Report: March 29, 2011
Number of Pages: 23
Order Number: R41724
Price: $29.95
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