Student loans: Will Congress’s remedy favor middle class over poor?, By Mark Trumbull, April 25, 2012, Christian Science Monitor: “The surging student loan burden has the attention of President Obama and Congress. A jaw-dropping fact has become widely publicized: that student debt for the first time totals more than $1 trillion, well over the amount Americans owe on credit cards. But even as politicians consider fixes – especially how to avert an interest-rate hike affecting students come July 1 – the grant-style aid that’s most important to lower-income students is already experiencing a budget squeeze…”
Tag: Financial aid
Low-Income College Enrollment
Survey shows colleges failing to attract low-income students, By Bill Schackner, March 29, 2011, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The nation’s wealthiest colleges collectively have failed since 2004 to significantly boost low-income enrollment, and more than half saw declines, including the main campuses of Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh, a survey says. The Chronicle of Higher Education findings published this week show that low-income students as defined by those receiving federal Pell Grants remained largely flat as a share of undergraduates on those campuses, at just under 15 percent. The maximum grant for this school year is $5,500. The Chronicle looked at campuses with the 50 largest endowments, a group that includes Ivy League schools, other elite private colleges and a number of flagship public universities…”
College Financial Aid
Bill proposes increased aid to the needy for college, By Tamar Lewin, March 18, 2010, New York Times: “The federal government would provide $36 billion in new financing for Pell grants to needy students over the next 10 years under legislation announced Thursday by Congressional Democrats. The maximum annual Pell grant would rise to $5,975 by 2017, from $5,350 this year. The new Pell initiative includes $13.5 billion to cover a shortfall caused by the sharp increase in the number of Americans enrolling in college during the recession. Congress would pay for the larger grants by ending subsidies to private banks that make student loans and shifting to direct federal lending. But the amount going to education spending and aid for college students is far less than the Obama administration had hoped, largely because the savings from the switch to direct federal lending is now estimated to be $61 billion, rather than $87 billion…”