Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Congress Eyes More College Aid: WSJ

Led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, frontrunner for new House Speaker, the new Congressional leadership has made affordable college education as a top priority, according to a piece by Anne Marie Chaker in today's Wall Street Journal.

The agenda is likely to include: cuts in student loan rates, more aid for low-income families and a tuition tax credit for parents, including middle and upper-middle class wage earners.

Among the measures Democrats have proposed is halving the interest rate on some federal student loans, which could save students thousands of dollars over the term of their loans. Parents could benefit from a proposal to allow tax deductions for tuition paid by families earning up to $160,000 a year. And lower-income families could get added help from a possible expansion of the federal Pell Grant program. --WSJ


Here's the link to the complete article, which has some interesting points about how the program will be funded and what kind of bi-partisan support will exist.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hallelujah. I worked in finaid in college and have watched low-income families dealing with it in my jobs since then. It's been crazy watching finaid go down the toilet the last few years. The impact on lower- and middle-income families has been really sad.

I think many people in the US must realize that many other advanced countries offer free college educations to their well-performing citizens as an investment. I hope at least they'll bring back more Pell money.

Frugal Duchess said...

Sally:

I so agree. You must have really seen a lot working in the financial aid office.

There was a recent survey of financial aid staffers and the poll participants voiced comments that hit the same notes as you have.
Take care.