U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich says he’ll soon be introducing legislation toextend a grant program for secondary education students.
The Postsecondary Student Success Grant Program is designed to equitably improve postsecondary student outcomes, including retention, transfer, credit accumulation, and completion.
While addressing the Complete College America Convening over the weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, Heinrich told the attendees that the country is facing a crisis in college completion.
“The stark truth is that far too many students who start their classes at both two-year and four-year institutions are failing to complete their degrees,” he said. “Only 62 percent of students enrolling in college nationwide are completing their education.
Among Hispanic, Black, Native American, and other students of color, first-generation, and low-income college enrollees, graduation rates are even lower. It’s crystal clear: We need to extend our focus beyond enrollment.”
Heinrich says the grants are helping colleges and universities scale their retention and completion programs.
He says in the first year, five colleges, four of them historically Black colleges and universities, received the new Postsecondary Student Success grants.
Heinrich says in the last major federal funding law, Congress invested 45 million more dollars to support student success programs at even more colleges. That was a nine-fold funding increase to expand the initiative.