The president’s proposal to make prison inmates eligible for Pell grants is vintage Obama. He needles Republicans with a “progressive” idea they generally oppose, and one that can’t be enacted without congressional approval, but the president promises to do it anyway (on a pilot basis).

Even so, helping prisoners take college courses is a good idea. While many prisoners need more basic education, some would benefit from college courses and, realistically, I don’t know how most inmates would pay today’s tuition. The Pell grant-for-prisoners-policy was in effect until Congress stopped it in 1994.

But a blanket authorization to pay $5,775 for anyone who wants to take college courses would have the same impact that the Pell grants have now–poorly targeted and monitored expenditures. (On the other hand, partying and drinking would not distract the students, and there would be no “Pell-runners“; at least they wouldn’t run very far.)

Jesse Saffron gave an overview of prison postsecondary education last year, at a time when New York State proposed, and then dropped, a plan to cover tuition for inmates. It turns out that a number of private colleges offer in-prison programs. Those could be expanded, paid for by the colleges or private charitable institutions. I would love to see an entrepreneur arise in this field comparable to Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach for America.

As with most government policies, the Pell grant plan would be a “one-size-fits-all” approach. What is needed, instead, are carefully tailored programs, and those, almost by definition, must be private.