The surest remedy for income inequality is postsecondary education. Numerous studies have demonstrated the impact that a college degree has on earnings and vaulting graduates into the middle class. As the country learns how to build itself back, it’s now up to Congress to act. The budget resolution passed by Congress last month provides a way to double the maximum Pell award, paving the way to higher education. That would be a win for every low-income family in America and every member of Congress who serves them. In the program’s early days, a Pell grant covered more than three-quarters of a recipient’s college costs. But as states steadily cut college and university budgets, and household incomes remained flat, the grant now covers less than a third of those costs.
