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My daughter was married to a lazy pothead who couldn’t keep a job. She had dropped out in her senior of HS year to marry the bum. She finally had a revelation, pursued and got her GED. She decided nursing was the way for her and she applied for and got a pell grant, enrolled at our then 2 year community college, got all her requisites done in 2 years. Was admitted into the further 2 year nursing school, completed the program and came out an RN. She was able to do it all with Pell grants. There was no way to pursue that level of school and a job at the same time. This was 18 years ago.

She is now a full fledged trauma norse and has worked some of the biggest ER’s in NM and AZ and helped save countless lives. She is currently in a large hospital as an ICU nurse and serves as the Hospital charge nurse when needed. She pulls 70-80 hrs a week making high 80-100k a year. She has more than paid back the grants thru taxes paid.

My grandaughter is following in her footsteps and her pell grant is 2,800.00 a semester. Her tuition and books for 15-16 credit hour course load is about 1900.00 and she received a 900.00 check for the balance of her semester for fees etc. If she is able to duplicate her Aunts feat, she will also be an asset, not a liability. (she got her GED at 16, is 17 1/2 now and already has CNA certification and in her last freshman semester fulfilling requisite courses).

Neither of these girls would have had a chance in the world getting thru a 4 year course of study without the grants. The feds can get quite a return on a $5k annual investment. I am sure there are some gaming the system, but they can’t for long because the grantee has to carry a specific GPA which rises each subsequent grant year to continue study.