If you think this year’s high school graduates are among the biggest beneficiaries of the new ral education bill expected to pump some $61 billion into higher education and tuition assistance, think again: It could very well be Mom and Dad participating in online college classes on the laptop.

Nearly 7 million adult students comprise as much as 70 percent of college enrollment, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Some say adults are making the most of a sluggish economy by investing in the future. Oftentimes, they’re enjoying the convenience and flexibility that online college classes and online degree programs afford. And tuition assistance offerings, including grants for college, are becoming more readily available to them.

“The payoff is so significant — and the cost of not obtaining a college degree or credential so steep — that huge numbers of adult students are stepping up to face the challenges,” Lumina Foundation for Education President Jamie P. Merisotis wrote in a foundation publication.

The Lumina Foundation and the Council for the Adult and Experiential Living work to expand access for adults interested in continued education, in part by encouraging increased tuition assistance. Through the education bill, the government expects to save money and boost college graduation rates. The education bill ends government subsidies and backing for bank and private lender issued student loans. And over the next decade, it expands the government’s Pell grant program by $36 billion, adds $2 billion to community college job training programs and makes paying the federal government’s Stafford and Perkins loans easier.

The shift in the adult student population has been coming for some time. While the number of 18 to 24-year-old students increased by 41 percent between 1970 and 2000, the number of adult students rose 170 percent during this time, according to a report entitled, “32 Trends Affecting Distance Education.” The United States nevertheless reportedly ranks 14th in college graduation rates worldwide. Adults traditionally spent well more than four years working part-time to earn a bachelor degree and reportedly had few financial assistance options.

Online college offerings have since grown substantially. Some institutions provide online college credit for life experience and offer accelerated online degree programs. Pell grants alone help with as much as 35 percent of the average student tuition. The grants, which don’t have to be repaid, are available to students working toward their first bachelor degree as well as post-graduate students enrolled in programs that lead to a teacher certificate or license. Pell grants are awarded based on financial need that, for adults, is measured by income and assets, family household size, and the number of family members, excluding parents, who attend institutions of higher education. The grants don’t have to be repaid but, to be eligible, students must be enrolled at least half-time.

Some schools and states also are reportedly starting to establish adult-specific grants for college. According to the Lumina Foundation, at least one agency offers tuition waivers for displaced workers who are unemployed or earning less money than they had been. There are reportedly also employers who have launched a 401K-like tuition savings method that the Center for Adult and Experiential Learning initiated. Through the Center’s Lifelong Learning Account (LiLA), employees can have pretax money for education and training deducted from their payroll checks and matched by their employers.

Non-profit organizations, for-profit companies, civic groups and labor unions that offer scholarships, fellowships and grants for their online degree and that might help adults seeking assistance on their on line degrees and online degree programs. If you are interested in going back to college online and want more information about your distance learning masters, you can find it on the internet.

Tags: college degree, degree, distance education degree, online degree, online degrees

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.