By Walter Pryce
This is an opinion column. It responds to a commentary published Nov. 6 by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy research organization based in Washington. The arguments and quoted views attributed to Heritage are the organization’s and its author’s; the conclusions about New York and Buffalo are the writer’s.
There is a new federal grant that can pay for job training measured in weeks instead of years. Western New York has the training centers and the employers to use it. What it doesn’t have yet is a single state-certified program that students can enroll in with the money.
In a commentary titled “Americans, Job Market Need Workforce Pell Grants,” Adam Kissel of The Heritage Foundation makes the case for the program, which lets Pell Grants cover short, career-focused credentials for the first time. “One of the best new solutions is Workforce Pell Grants, which help people get meaningful job credentials—fast,” he writes.
His argument deserves a hearing in Albany, because New York is now the bottleneck.
What the law does, and who gets credit
Workforce Pell was created by the tax and spending law that President Donald Trump signed on July 4, 2025, known then as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and now called the Working Families Tax Cuts Act by the Department of Education. The final rule allows Pell Grants for programs of 150 to 599 clock hours that take at least eight weeks but less than 15. The Trump administration’s Education Department says the change will “help more Americans rapidly enter the workforce with little-to-no student debt.”
The law deserves credit for something Washington rarely gets right: it attached real guardrails. A program must have run for at least a year, show 70% completion and 70% job placement, and keep tuition below what its graduates actually gain in earnings. The governor of each state must certify that a program fits the state’s workforce needs before the U.S. education secretary can approve it.
Kissel highlights that design. “The ones that get approved must be of high quality,” he writes. “To qualify, they need strong outcomes for completion and employment.”
Heritage’s argument
Heritage’s view is that the program is a better deal than a four-year degree for many students, and that states should move quickly. “So far, just a few states have gotten programs approved, but we should expect many more,” Kissel writes. He points to an Ohio bill that would give employers a state tax credit for helping colleges design workforce programs, and he urges Washington to “let states lead the way, but be open to regulatory and statutory reform as needed.”
Heritage also wants Congress to resist adding money to cover a projected shortfall in the broader Pell program, and suggests offsets such as ending Public Service Loan Forgiveness for new borrowers. That is a separate and more contested fight, and readers can weigh it on its own merits. The core point, that short, high-quality training should be fundable, is one New York’s Democratic governor has embraced too.
Where New York stands
Gov. Kathy Hochul opened New York’s application portal on Aug. 24 and created a Workforce Pell Advisory Committee, with members from her office, the Labor Department, SUNY, CUNY and private colleges, to review programs monthly. “Every New Yorker deserves an affordable path to a good-paying career,” Hochul said. State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky put it more sharply: “The people who need this most are the ones who cannot stop working.”
The state has named priority fields that fit Western New York well, including advanced manufacturing, nursing and allied health, and supply chain and logistics. But as of this weekend, the state’s Workforce Pell page lists eligibility rules and an application link, not a roster of certified programs. Two and a half months after the portal opened, a Buffalo worker who wants to use the grant has nowhere to point to.
Buffalo is ready to use it
Buffalo already has the kind of employer-driven training Heritage describes. The Northland Workforce Training Center on Northland Avenue is run as a public-private partnership, with the Buffalo Niagara Manufacturing Alliance among its operators. SUNY Erie Community College and SUNY Alfred State deliver for-credit programs there in machining, mechatronics, welding and electrical technology, aligned to what regional manufacturers say they need.
Not every program there, or at the region’s other community colleges, will fit inside the eight-to-15-week window. The job now is to find the ones that do, or the short, stackable pieces of longer programs that can stand on their own. SUNY says its campuses are preparing to implement the program.
There is a fair counterargument. Critics worry that some short credentials don’t pay off, and a grant that pays for weak programs would waste money and students’ time. But the law’s earnings and placement tests are built to screen those out, and New York’s review committee adds another check. Caution is a reason to review carefully, not to review slowly.
What should happen next
The Workforce Pell Advisory Committee should publish a timetable for its first certifications and a public list of programs under review, so applicants and students know where things stand. Gov. Hochul should certify the first group before the spring semester.
SUNY Erie, Niagara County Community College and the region’s other eligible schools should say publicly which programs they have submitted. And Western New York’s members of Congress and state legislators should ask the Labor Department one simple question this month: when will the first New Yorker be able to enroll with a Workforce Pell Grant?
Washington created the tool. Albany controls the gate. Buffalo’s workers should not have to wait for it to open.
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