Historic Victory for Student Aid Is Tinged by Lost Possibilities

[robinblue]

Here is an analysis of the new education bill. I have not seen much about it.



http://chronicle.com/article/Historic-Victory-for-Student/64844/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

March 25, 2010
Historic Victory for Student Aid Is Tinged by Lost Possibilities

By Paul Basken

Washington


...................
So, in the end, how much was really accomplished?

More than a year after President Obama proposed eliminating the bank-based system of distributing federally subsidized student loans and giving the savings to education, Democrats are finally beginning to savor victory................

Yet for all the drawn-out battle over the landmark student-loan bill, the measure will result in limited gains, providing only a portion of the money the president had sought for some of his key higher-education goals. Pell Grants, the government's main aid program for financially needy students, got billions of dollars less than expected. Community colleges, seen by the president as key to his hopes for a broad expansion of college attendance and graduation rates, also got a fraction of the intended amount. Other programs fared even worse in the final legislative compromise.

....................

Savings from the switch were originally estimated at $87-billion over 10 years. The bill, in the version that first passed the House of Representatives last September, would have given most of that money to education programs, primarily the Pell Grant, but also historically black colleges and other minority-serving institutions, community colleges, and a grant program to help states and institutions improve college-completion rates.

In the end, the compromise legislation provided less than half that much money, about $43-billion, for spending on education programs. Most of it, $36-billion, is going to bolster the Pell Grant, and the largest additional chunk, about $2.5-billion, has been allocated to minority-serving institutions.

Future of Pell..............

[hedgehog]

1. Truth to tell, I'm waiting to see the financial aid letters rather

than trying to work my way through the bill itself. I filled out two FAFSA forms this year and once again there was no place to note that I am already paying back $700/ month on the student loans I took out for my other children.

[BlueIris]

2. Keep us posted about how it allll works out.

:-)

[robinblue]

3. Most of students

already work 20 plus hours even with the Pell grants. Tuition goes up and up and up. It's a crap game for most of them.