II 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2888

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 

OCTOBER 5, 2004

Mr. DODD (for himself, Mr. EDWARDS, Mr. LEVIN, and Mr. KENNEDY) 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 2004’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that—

8 (1) young people under 18 years of age are now 

9 our Nation’s most impoverished age group, with 1 of 
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1 every 5 living in poverty, a higher proportion than 

2 in 1968, and the percentage of minority children liv3 ing in poverty is about twice as high; 

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

5 single parent and the percentage of such families 

6 has risen steadily over the past few decades, rising 

7 13 percent since 1990; 

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

9 participants in decisionmaking that affects their 

10 lives, including in the design, development, imple11 mentation, and evaluation of youth development pro12 grams at the Federal, State, and community levels; 

13 (4) existing outcome driven youth development 

14 strategies, pioneered by community-based organiza15 tions, hold real promise for promoting positive be16 haviors and preventing youth problems; 

17 (5) formal evaluations of youth development 

18 programs have documented significant reductions in 

19 drug and alcohol use, school misbehavior, aggressive 

20 behavior, violence, truancy, high-risk sexual behav21 ior, and smoking; 

22 (6) compared to youth in the United States 

23 generally, youth participating in community-based 

24 organizations are more than 26 percent more likely 

25 to report having received recognition for good grades 
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1 than youth in the United States generally and nearly 

2 20 percent more likely to rate the likelihood of their 

3 going to college as very high; and 

4 (7) the availability and use of Federal resources 

5 can be an effective incentive to leverage broader 

6 community support to enable local programs, activi7 ties, and services to provide the full array of develop8 mental core resources, remove barriers to access, 

9 promote program effectiveness, and facilitate coordi10 nation and collaboration within the community. 

11 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM. 

12 Subpart 2 of part A of title IV of the Higher Edu13 cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11 et seq.) is 

14 amended—

15 (1) by redesignating section 407E as section 

16 406E; and 

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

18 ‘‘Chapter 4—Public Service Incentives 

19 ‘‘SEC. 407A. PURPOSE. 

20 ‘‘The purpose of this chapter is to establish a scholar21 ship program to reward low-income students who have, 

22 during high school, and who continue, during college, to 

23 make significant public service contributions to their com24 munities. 
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1 ‘‘SEC. 407B. SCHOLARSHIPS AUTHORIZED. 

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

3 Secretary is authorized to award a scholarship to enable 

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

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

6 years of undergraduate education, if the student—

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

8 such scholarship, performed not less than 300 hours 

9 of qualifying public service during each of 2 aca10 demic years of the student’s secondary school enroll11 ment; 

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

13 any subsequent year of such scholarship, performed 

14 not less than 300 hours of qualifying public service 

15 during the academic year of postsecondary school at16 tendance preceding the academic year for which the 

17 student seeks such scholarship; 

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

19 lunch under the Richard B. Russell National School 

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

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

22 for the year in which the scholarships are awarded, 

23 except that a student shall not be required to comply 

24 or verify compliance with section 484(a)(5) for pur25 poses of receiving a scholarship under this chapter; 

26 and
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1 ‘‘(5) otherwise demonstrates compliance with 

2 regulations prescribed by the Secretary under sec3 tion 407G. 

4 ‘‘(b) DEFINITION OF QUALIFYING PUBLIC SERV5 ICE.—For purposes of subsection (a), the term ‘qualifying 

6 public service’ means service that would be eligible for 

7 treatment as community service under the National and 

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

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

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

11 ‘‘(a) AMOUNT OF AWARD.—

12 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para13 graph (2) and subsection (b), the amount of a schol14 arship awarded under this chapter for any academic 

15 year shall be equal to $5,000. 

16 ‘‘(2) ADJUSTMENT FOR INSUFFICIENT APPRO17 PRIATIONS.—If, after the Secretary determines the 

18 total number of students selected under section 

19 407D for an academic year, funds available to carry 

20 out this chapter for the academic year are insuffi21 cient to fully fund all awards under this chapter for 

22 the academic year, the amount of the scholarship 

23 paid to each student under this chapter shall be re24 duced proportionately. 
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1 ‘‘(b) ASSISTANCE NOT TO EXCEED COST OF AT2 TENDANCE.—A scholarship awarded under this chapter to 

3 any student, in combination with the Federal Pell Grant 

4 assistance and other student financial assistance available 

5 to such student, may not exceed the student’s cost of at6 tendance. 

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

8 ‘‘The Secretary shall designate a panel to select stu9 dents for the award of scholarships under this chapter. 

10 Such panel shall be composed of 9 individuals who are 

11 selected by the Secretary and shall be composed of equal 

12 numbers of youths, community representatives, and teach13 ers. The Secretary shall ensure that no individual assigned 

14 under this section to review any application has any con15 flict of interest with regard to the application that might 

16 impair the impartiality with which the individual conducts 

17 the review under this section. 

18 ‘‘SEC. 407E. APPLICATIONS. 

19 ‘‘Any eligible student desiring to obtain a scholarship 

20 under this section shall submit to the Secretary an appli21 cation at such time, in such manner, and containing such 

22 information or assurances as the Secretary may require. 

23 Such application shall—

24 ‘‘(1) demonstrate that the eligible student is 

25 maintaining satisfactory academic progress and is 
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1 achieving a grade point average of at least 2.0 (on 

2 a scale of 4), or its equivalent; 

3 ‘‘(2) include a recommendation from—

4 ‘‘(A) the supervisor of the community serv5 ice project of the applicant; and 

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

7 familiar with the character of the applicant 

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

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

10 nature of the community service performed by the 

11 applicant. 

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

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

14 Secretary shall develop and disseminate to the public in15 formation on the availability of, and application process 

16 for, scholarships under this chapter. 

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

18 about the scholarship program under this chapter, the 

19 Secretary shall—

20 ‘‘(1) disseminate such information directly or 

21 through arrangements with local educational agen22 cies, public and private elementary schools and sec23 ondary schools, nonprofit organizations, consumer 

24 groups, Federal, State, or local agencies, and the 

25 media; and 
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1 ‘‘(2) at a minimum, include a description and 

2 the purpose of the scholarship program, an expla3 nation of how to obtain an application, and a de4 scription of the application process and procedures. 

5 ‘‘SEC. 407G. REGULATIONS. 

6 ‘‘The Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as 

7 may be necessary to carry out this chapter. 

8 ‘‘SEC. 407H. EVALUATION. 

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

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

11 Secretary shall prepare and submit to Congress an evalua12 tion of the effectiveness of the program under this chapter. 

13 Such evaluation shall include—

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

15 level and types of community service sites, for the 

16 scholarships provided under this chapter; 

17 ‘‘(2) general data on the background of pro18 gram participants and the types of service per19 formed; and 

20 ‘‘(3) an itemization of the costs of admin21 istering the program under this chapter. 

22 ‘‘SEC. 407I. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

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

24 this chapter $5,000,000 for fiscal year 2005 and such 
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1 sums as are necessary for each of the 3 succeeding fiscal 

2 years.’’.

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