Pell Grants are the rare education tax subsidy that disadvantages white students less

Evidence

The Pell Grant program represents one of the few scholarship exclusion advantages that black students disproportionately benefit from: Pell Grants are awarded by income, and roughly 70 percent of black college students receive them compared with 34 percent of whites. In 1975, a Pell Grant covered 79 percent of the average costs of tuition, fees, room, and board at a public four-year college. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 320

Categorization

• XREF: Direct data point for reader’s four-provision argument — Pell Grant reach (70% vs 34%) quantifies asymmetry.
• QUESTION: Worth checking how Pell Grant purchasing power declined (79% in 1975) later, since she will likely use that degradation as part of the mechanism.