A New Deal for Young Adults: Social Security for Students

By Alexander Hertel-Fernandez

Created 05/14/2010 - 8:20am

This post is based on a brief written for the National Academy of Social Insurance, read the entire brief here [1].

As graduation season commences, President Obama and other policymakers have called for efforts to increase college completion rates, especially for disadvantaged students. To help achieve this goal, Congress and the administration ought to look to a program with a strong historical record of aiding students: Social Security.

Social Security already provides support to the children of parents who have retired, died, or become disabled up through the child’s nineteenth birthday at the latest. From 1965 to 1981, Congress extended these benefits to age 22 if the child was enrolled in a form of higher education. Research has shown that these Social Security “student benefits” aided college enrollment and completion amongst low-income and minority young adults.