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Framing Effects and Group Differences in Public Opinion about Prison Pell Grants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2021

Travis M. Johnston Open the ORCID record for Travis M. Johnston [Opens in a new window]  and
Kevin H. Wozniak
Travis M. Johnston
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Boston
Kevin H. Wozniak
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Boston
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Abstract

After years of gridlock on the issue, a bipartisan group of members of Congress struck a deal in 2020 to restore eligibility for inmates to access Pell Grants. Evidence indicates that college education programs in prison reduce recidivism and, consequently, state corrections expenditures, but legislators in prior decades feared that voters would resent government subsidy of college classes for criminals. To assess the contemporary politics of the issue, we analyze data from a framing experiment embedded in the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. We find that Americans, on average, neither support nor oppose the proposal to restore inmates’ Pell Grant eligibility; however, exposure to arguments about the proposal’s benefits to inmates in particular and American society more broadly both increased subjects’ support. We further explore how this framing effect varies across political partisanship and racial resentment. We find that both frames elicited a positive response from subjects, especially among Democrats and subjects with low or moderate racial resentment.

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PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 411 - 415
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© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OTN7GQ
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Johnston and Wozniak supplementary material

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