A Brief History: Pell Grants & the Short-Term Training Debate
For more than 50 years, the federal Pell Grant has helped millions of undergraduates afford associate and bachelor’s degrees. But until now, Pell could not be used for short-term training programs. With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, Congress created a new Workforce Pell Grant program that expands Pell access to short, workforce-focused programs while adding unusually strong performance guardrails.
In this update, we explain the new Workforce Pell Grant and how Shelby County can take advantage of the change to make sure local families actually gain living-wage work.
Good data drives systems change.
Pre-K is a long-term investment. Children benefit from Pre-K across a lifetime. Pre-K enrollment has demonstrated positive effects onthird-grade reading, high school graduation, postsecondary success, and adult earnings. These benefits are why we were able to help secure investment from the Memphis and Shelby County governments in local Pre-K.
But to make the case for Pre-K, we need long-term data. Seeding Success and First 8 Memphis have taken on the task of data analysis to help schools, non-profits, and other institutions improve the lives and learning of students.
Data is vital infrastructure. Learn more in this week’s policy update.
Big Shifts in Federal Education Policy
This week, the U.S. Department of Education announced interagency agreements to move several offices currently under the purview of the Department of Education to other federal agencies. This unilateral executive effort follows President Trump’s campaign promise to shut down the Department of Education, though only Congress has the authority to officially shutter the agency.
Such a large change comes with risks and concerns, especially for students of color, disabled students, Native students, and female students. Yet a coordinated, strategic response could present an opportunity for states to innovate and change the landscape of education to meet the needs of their population. We discuss these considerations further in the full update
How We Coordinate for Change
The Shelby County Delegation of State Legislators met for a two-day retreat to hear from local governmental entities, businesses, and nonprofits about their requests for the upcoming session of the General Assembly. Our main takeaway was that the lack of alignment between all of these groups is a major hindrance to creating high quality of life and economic mobility for Memphians.
But this retreat also highlighted a massive opportunity. See the full update to learn more!
Memphis Again #1 in Child Poverty
The Memphis 2025 Poverty Fact Sheet shows that Memphis still has the highest poverty rate for children in the nation. More than four in 10 children in this city live below the federal poverty line—nearly double the nation rate. This is unacceptable. We must do better by our youth.
But how do we do that? Through long-term structural change, not short-term charity or isolated programs. We need more early investment for children 0-8 years old, better cradle-to-career pipelines, more economic stability for families, affordable housing, and public-private accountability.