WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today said that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded two competitive grants totaling $599,986 to Iowa State University and the Iowa State University Book Store.
“These funds will help the Iowa State University Book Store start an innovative textbook rental program to help students save money. Iowa State will also receive funding to help train students at community colleges throughout Iowa for careers in the pork industry,” Grassley said.
•$300,000 to the Iowa State University Book Store to help purchase an initial inventory to be rented to students, purchase and pay for the annual maintenance fee for the necessary software module for managing the rental process, obtain necessary operating supplies and use the revenue gained from textbook rental to expand the number of rentals offered.
•$299,986 to Iowa State University to help properly train pork production workers. This project will help producers maintain optimum production and animal welfare environment and responsibly manage environmental issues while remaining economically viable. Iowa State University will provide a sequence of science-based courses taught at the community college level with regular evaluation and implement a certification system involving maintenance of a highly reliable testing system, and a highly reliable database to track courses successfully completed, certifications and CEU’s earned.
Each year, thousands of local Iowa organizations, colleges and universities, individuals and state agencies apply for competitive grants from the federal government. The funding is then awarded based on each local organization or individual’s ability to meet criteria set by the federal entity.