Low-income students who take a rigorous high-school curriculum would be eligible for expanded Pell Grants during their first and second years of college under a bill introduced on Thursday by two Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Pell Grants Plus Act would link the additional aid to a voluntary program called State Scholars, and would be limited to the states in which that program operates. Fourteen states have the program now.

It is likely that the bill, which is based on a proposal in President Bush's budget request for the 2005 fiscal year (The Chronicle, February 13), will be included in legislation to renew the Higher Education Act, which a House subcommittee is expected to introduce in the next couple of weeks. That legislation will shape policy for federal student-aid programs over the next five years.

The new bill would provide an additional $1,000 in Pell Grants in both the first and second years of college to 36,000 students who completed the required course work, which was prescribed by educators and business leaders, according to information from the U.S. Department of Education. The maximum Pell grant now is $4,050. Students would have to maintain a 3.0 grade point average in college to continue receiving increased assistance in the second year.

Secretary of Education Roderick R. Paige strongly endorsed the proposed legislation, which was introduced by Reps. Max Burns of Georgia and Ric Keller of Florida.

"We know that parents and teachers across the country will be encouraging young people to take advantage of this program that rewards hardworking students from low-income families," Mr. Paige said in a written statement. "Encouraging states to offer challenging programs and rewarding students who take the challenge is a key initiative" in President Bush's budget for 2005, he said.

The proposal would serve as a pilot for adding a merit component to the Pell Grant program and giving more money to first- and second-year college students, a practice known as "front-loading." Both ideas have been hotly debated for years. Advocates, who include Mr. Bush, say front-loading will encourage needy students to attend college.

Mr. Bush highlighted the State Scholars program in his State of the Union address in January, and included $45-million for it in his budget for 2005, $33-million of which would be spent on larger Pell Grant awards. The remaining $12-million would cover administrative costs to get the program under way in more states.

State Scholars, which originated in Texas, is administered on a voluntary basis by statewide business organizations working with public-school districts. Mr. Burns and Mr. Keller said in a written statement that they hope their proposal will encourage more states to adopt the program.

Although the program varies from state to state, the basic format remains the same. Volunteers from local businesses visit eighth-grade classrooms and tell students that taking certain challenging courses in high school, including foreign languages and physics, will lead to higher-paying jobs.

Some higher-education experts see merit in the program but are wary of its larger policy implications.

Thomas J. Kane, a policy-and-economics professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, said he supported the idea of encouraging high-school students to take challenging courses, but wasn't sure this program was the best way to test front-loading, since students who take the courses would probably already be college-bound.

Others say the course requirements are geared toward four-year colleges while about half of Pell Grant recipients attend community colleges.

"This is a little bit of a one-size-fits-all solution," said Donald E. Heller, associate professor at the Pennsylvania University's Center for the Study of Higher Education. School districts should be careful, he said, about sending the message that "if you don't do this, you can't go to college."