New Federal Initiative to Expand Private Sector Work-Study for Low-Income Students

New Federal Initiative to Expand Private Sector Work-Study for Low-Income Students
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies during a House House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, May 22, 2018 in Washington, DC. Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Bill Pan
Bill Pan
Reporter
|Updated:

The U.S. Department of Education has granted waivers on federal aid rules to 190 colleges and universities, allowing more students from low-income families to get work-study jobs related to their majors in the private sector.

Federal Work-study (FWS) is a program for students to earn money to pay for their tuition and housing through part-time on-campus and sometimes off-campus jobs that are not necessarily connected to a student’s interests or major. More than 3,000 institutions across the country provided over 600,000 students with FWS opportunities, the Department said in a press release. But less than 0.01 percent involved off-campus employment with private-sector employers.