II 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1247 

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish a scholarship 

program to encourage and support students who have contributed substantial public services. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 14, 2005 

Mr. DODD (for himself, Ms. MIKULSKI, Ms. LANDRIEU, Mr. LEVIN, Ms. 

CANTWELL, and Mr. KERRY) introduced the following bill; which was 

read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 

and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish 

a scholarship program to encourage and support students 

who have contributed substantial public services. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Youth Service Scholar5 ship Act of 2005’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 
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1 (1) young people under 18 years of age are now 

2 our Nation’s most impoverished age group, with 1 of 

3 every 5 living in poverty, a higher proportion than 

4 in 1968, and the percentage of minority children liv5 ing in poverty is about twice as high; 

6 (2) more than 1 of 4 families is headed by a 

7 single parent and the percentage of such families 

8 has risen steadily over the past few decades, rising 

9 13 percent since 1990; 

10 (3) there is a need to engage youth as active 

11 participants in decisionmaking that affects their 

12 lives, including in the design, development, imple13 mentation, and evaluation of youth development pro14 grams at the Federal, State, and community levels; 

15 (4) existing outcome driven youth development 

16 strategies, pioneered by community-based organiza17 tions, hold real promise for promoting positive be18 haviors and preventing youth problems; 

19 (5) formal evaluations of youth development 

20 programs have documented significant reductions in 

21 drug and alcohol use, school misbehavior, aggressive 

22 behavior, violence, truancy, high-risk sexual behav23 ior, and smoking; 

24 (6) compared to youth in the United States 

25 generally, youth participating in community-based 
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1 organizations are more than 26 percent more likely 

2 to report having received recognition for good grades 

3 than youth in the United States generally and nearly 

4 20 percent more likely to rate the likelihood of their 

5 going to college as very high; and 

6 (7) the availability and use of Federal resources 

7 can be an effective incentive to leverage broader 

8 community support to enable local programs, activi9 ties, and services to provide the full array of develop10 mental core resources, remove barriers to access, 

11 promote program effectiveness, and facilitate coordi12 nation and collaboration within the community. 

13 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM. 

14 Subpart 2 of part A of title IV of the Higher Edu15 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11 et seq.) is 

16 amended— 

17 (1) by redesignating section 407E as section 

18 406E; and 

19 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

20 ‘‘CHAPTER 4—PUBLIC SERVICE 

21 INCENTIVES 

22 ‘‘SEC. 407A. PURPOSE. 

23 ‘‘The purpose of this chapter is to establish a scholar24 ship program to reward low-income students who have, 

25 during high school, and who continue, during college, to 
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1 make significant public service contributions to their com2 munities. 

3 ‘‘SEC. 407B. SCHOLARSHIPS AUTHORIZED. 

4 ‘‘(a) QUALIFICATIONS FOR SCHOLARSHIPS.—The 

5 Secretary is authorized to award a scholarship to enable 

6 a student to pay the cost of attendance at an institution 

7 of higher education during the student’s first 4 academic 

8 years of undergraduate education, if the student— 

9 ‘‘(1) in order to be eligible for the first year of 

10 such scholarship, performed not less than 300 hours 

11 of qualifying public service during each of 2 aca12 demic years of the student’s secondary school enroll13 ment; 

14 ‘‘(2) in order to be eligible for the second or 

15 any subsequent year of such scholarship, performed 

16 not less than 300 hours of qualifying public service 

17 during the academic year of postsecondary school at18 tendance preceding the academic year for which the 

19 student seeks such scholarship; 

20 ‘‘(3) was eligible for a free or reduced price 

21 lunch under the Richard B. Russell National School 

22 Lunch Act (42 U.S.C. 1721 et seq.); 

23 ‘‘(4) is eligible to receive Federal Pell Grants 

24 for the year in which the scholarships are awarded, 

25 except that a student shall not be required to comply 
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1 or verify compliance with section 484(a)(5) for pur2 poses of receiving a scholarship under this chapter; 

3 and 

4 ‘‘(5) otherwise demonstrates compliance with 

5 regulations prescribed by the Secretary under sec6 tion 407G. 

7 ‘‘(b) DEFINITION OF QUALIFYING PUBLIC SERV8 ICE.—For purposes of subsection (a), the term ‘qualifying 

9 public service’ means service that would be eligible for 

10 treatment as community service under the National and 

11 Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12501 et seq.) 

12 or under the Federal work-study program under part C. 

13 ‘‘SEC. 407C. AMOUNT OF SCHOLARSHIP. 

14 ‘‘(a) AMOUNT OF AWARD.— 

15 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para16 graph (2) and subsection (b), the amount of a schol17 arship awarded under this chapter for any academic 

18 year shall be equal to $5,000. 

19 ‘‘(2) ADJUSTMENT FOR INSUFFICIENT APPRO20 PRIATIONS.—If, after the Secretary determines the 

21 total number of students selected under section 

22 407D for an academic year, funds available to carry 

23 out this chapter for the academic year are insuffi24 cient to fully fund all awards under this chapter for 

25 the academic year, the amount of the scholarship 
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1 paid to each student under this chapter shall be re2 duced proportionately. 

3 ‘‘(b) ASSISTANCE NOT TO EXCEED COST OF AT4 TENDANCE.—A scholarship awarded under this chapter to 

5 any student, in combination with the Federal Pell Grant 

6 assistance and other student financial assistance available 

7 to such student, may not exceed the student’s cost of at8 tendance. 

9 ‘‘SEC. 407D. SELECTION OF SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS. 

10 ‘‘The Secretary shall designate a panel to select stu11 dents for the award of scholarships under this chapter. 

12 Such panel shall be composed of 9 individuals who are 

13 selected by the Secretary and shall be composed of equal 

14 numbers of youths, community representatives, and teach15 ers. The Secretary shall ensure that no individual assigned 

16 under this section to review any application has any con17 flict of interest with regard to the application that might 

18 impair the impartiality with which the individual conducts 

19 the review under this section. 

20 ‘‘SEC. 407E. APPLICATIONS. 

21 ‘‘Any eligible student desiring to obtain a scholarship 

22 under this section shall submit to the Secretary an appli23 cation at such time, in such manner, and containing such 

24 information or assurances as the Secretary may require. 

25 Such application shall— 
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1 ‘‘(1) demonstrate that the eligible student is 

2 maintaining satisfactory academic progress and is 

3 achieving a grade point average of at least 3.0 (on 

4 a scale of 4), or its equivalent; 

5 ‘‘(2) include a recommendation from— 

6 ‘‘(A) the supervisor of the community serv7 ice project of the applicant; and 

8 ‘‘(B) another individual not related to, but 

9 familiar with the character of the applicant 

10 such as a teacher, coach, or employer; and 

11 ‘‘(3) include an essay by the applicant on the 

12 nature of the community service performed by the 

13 applicant. 

14 ‘‘SEC. 407F. PROGRAM DISSEMINATION AND PROMOTION. 

15 ‘‘(a) DEVELOPMENT AND DISSEMINATION.—The 

16 Secretary shall develop and disseminate to the public in17 formation on the availability of, and application process 

18 for, scholarships under this chapter. 

19 ‘‘(b) PROMOTION.—In disseminating information 

20 about the scholarship program under this chapter, the 

21 Secretary shall— 

22 ‘‘(1) disseminate such information directly or 

23 through arrangements with local educational agen24 cies, public and private elementary schools and sec25 ondary schools, nonprofit organizations, consumer 
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1 groups, Federal, State, or local agencies, and the 

2 media; and 

3 ‘‘(2) at a minimum, include a description and 

4 the purpose of the scholarship program, an expla5 nation of how to obtain an application, and a de6 scription of the application process and procedures. 

7 ‘‘SEC. 407G. REGULATIONS. 

8 ‘‘The Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as 

9 may be necessary to carry out this chapter. 

10 ‘‘SEC. 407H. EVALUATION. 

11 ‘‘Not earlier than 2 years after the first fiscal year 

12 for which funds are made available under this chapter, the 

13 Secretary shall prepare and submit to Congress an evalua14 tion of the effectiveness of the program under this chapter. 

15 Such evaluation shall include— 

16 ‘‘(1) an evaluation of the demand, by grade 

17 level and types of community service sites, for the 

18 scholarships provided under this chapter; 

19 ‘‘(2) general data on the background of pro20 gram participants and the types of service per21 formed; and 

22 ‘‘(3) an itemization of the costs of admin23 istering the program under this chapter. 
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1 ‘‘SEC. 407I. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 

3 this chapter $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2006 and such 

4 sums as are necessary for each of the 3 succeeding fiscal 

5 years.’’. 

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