This will have a very negative impact on low income students who need every $$ to be able to go to college.
“Congress Axes a Lifeline for Small Colleges”
The Perkins Loan program, the U.S. government’s oldest student aid program, expired two weeks ago, leaving small schools that depend on tuition without a lifeline. Expect “greater pressure on university financial aid budgets and enrollment volatility” at those institutions, said the report, published on Thursday by Moody’s, the credit rating agency. "
I wish the whole Student Loan program would get revamped.
Students, particularly low income, should not need parents to “fail Plus” in order to get more for (at least) junior and senior years.
I would rather see low-income students have the option to take NO loans for frosh and soph years at a local CC (just get their Pell) and then be able to borrow $15k per year for jr and sr years. Too many face too big of a gap when they transfer.
Yes, if you don’t use the allowed amount of federal loans in the first two years, you should be able to take out more federal loans for the last 2 years. After all, the concern is how much you borrow for a bachelors, not what year you take out the loans.
I believe Perkins had a built-in process for a simple one-year extension by Congress, but these esteemed statesman couldn’t even achieve that. The next question is whether the colleges are allowed to recycle the loan repayments for new loans, or whether they have to return the loan repayments to the feds.
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Yes, if you don’t use the allowed amount of federal loans in the first two years, you should be able to take out more federal loans for the last 2 years. After all, the concern is how much you borrow for a bachelors, not what year you take out the loans.
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Exactly…and the current system of “use it or lose it” just isn’t wise. A student who borrows $30k total for jr and sr years is a lower risk than the student who borrows $12k for frosh and soph years. The further along a student gets in college, the more likely he’ll finish.
Even if a student has the intent to take/save the sub loans as a frosh/soph and use them for jr/sr years, the risk that the money will get spent/wasted or “lent” to family members is just too high.
State schools that have a high number of low-income CC to state school transfers should be pressuring the feds to make a change like this.
Disgusting. Perkins was small but a lifesaver for me as a low income student.
Congress continues to push higher education out of reach for poor students. They, of course, don’t care because the poor can’t contribute to campaigns.