Twice a week, UT San Antonio students meet via Zoom as part of a certification program. They are training to be medical billing and coding specialists — the people who translate patient records into letter and number codes and send them to insurance companies.
Instructor Steven Carpenter says this is a classic example of a workforce program.
“We’re helping to meet a growing demand of skilled health care administrative professionals for the local area,” he said.
Some of the students already have experience in the medical field, but others are retraining entirely.
Esperanza Pensado, who was a teacher for over 15 years before taking the class, just graduated in February and started her new job.
“We are four people who found a job from my class in this company,” Pensado said. “I’m working in this position, I see that they need people.”
Students in programs geared toward workforce training historically have had limited access to federal financial aid. But now, the Department of Education is adding more funding via Workforce Pell Grants.
In addition to using Pell money for traditional higher education, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made Pell Grants available for students in some workforce training programs starting July 1.
Shytance Wren, a policy analyst at the Education Commission of the States, said there are not a lot of details yet about how this program will work.
But here’s what we do know: Students who meet the requirements for a Pell Grant will also be eligible for a Workforce Pell, which will cover part of the cost of programs between 8 and 14 weeks long.
“It represents a major expansion of federal financial aid,” Wren said.
States will also play a role in determining which programs are eligible. In Texas, the Workforce Commission, Higher Education Coordinating Board, and Workforce Investment Council will decide which programs qualify.
Wren said approved programs will have to collect and report data to demonstrate their success rate.
“By 2029 through 2030, states must begin reporting on the share of program-completers who find jobs in fields related to their training,” she said.
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The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board told the Texas Standard that workforce training programs are essential to place workers in high-demand, well-paying jobs.
Experts in the field agree, and are excited about the possibility of reaching more students.
“It is a great opportunity to expand access to some of those that wouldn’t have access to a program like this,” said Melissa Mahan, an associate vice provost for Professional and Continuing Education at UT San Antonio.
Mahan expects many universities to apply for funding when the program launches this summer — though it is still unclear what the approval process will be or how long it will take.
But some are worried that increased federal funding might attract bad actors who will try to cash in by launching subpar programs. This includes Christopher Madaio, a senior advisor at the Institute for College Access and Success.
“We’re very concerned about the overinflated cost,” he said. “Especially because schools will see, well, ‘here’s Pell Grant that can cover part of the program, so I’m going to raise my tuition.’”
Madaio is also worried that students might waste some of their limited lifetime Pell money on programs before there is data on which ones actually lead to good jobs.
“So not only wasting their (Pell) money, but wasting taxpayer dollars, and then wasting any further money they spend on the programs,” he said.
Madaio’s organization published model legislation for states that is designed to make sure the program approval process is thorough.
“We think legislation is the best way to set clear standards so institutions know exactly what they need to do, and then add in these additional guardrails,” he said. “There’s a bucket of protections that we think are really important that we list in our model legislation that we think states should consider.”
Even as those details remain uncertain, UT San Antonio instructor Steven Carpenter said he wants people to understand courses like his can make a radical change in students’ lives.
“These are actually fairly short-term courses. Our program is about four months long,” he said. “With the investment on the part of the students, they can make a life-changing career change.”
The Department of Education is still collecting comments on this program and how exactly it will work through April 8.
