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Nonprofit and Trio programs describe barriers to federal aid for incarcerated learners and recommend policy fixes
Summary
Opportunity Resource Services and TRIO representatives told the committee that incarcerated learners face barriers to federal student aid including digital access, ID recovery, transcript costs and loan default; they urged expanded prison education partnerships, better account‑recovery processes and protection for TRIO funding.
Hannah Sutton, program director of the Educational Opportunity Center at Opportunity Resource Services (ORS), and Andrea Jackson, a college access coordinator, presented to the committee about efforts to help incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students access higher education and federal student aid.
Sutton said ORS serves thousands annually through TRIO‑funded Educational Opportunity Centers and Upward Bound programs and that a growing portion of their work involves reentry and prison‑education pathways. She cited national research showing postsecondary access reduces recidivism and increases employment prospects, and said fewer than 2% of the roughly 130,000 people confined in Texas Department of Criminal Justice…
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