Advocate Online

From Capitol to Campus

The $20 billion College Cost Reduction and Access Act (HR 2669), recently approved by Congress, is the single largest investment in federal education since the GI Bill, say lawmakers, and would make significant changes to federal student aid programs.

The new measure would increase the maximum Pell Grant award each year to reach $5,400 by 2012.  Interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans are also cut in half, with a phased-in reduction that drops from the current rate of 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent by 2011. Further, borrowers with direct loans, who are in public service careers, including public education, who make payments on their student loans for 10 years while in those careers, can have the balance of their loans forgiven.

While enactment of this measure is significant, broader federal higher education legislation has yet to be considered by the House. The Senate approved its effort earlier this summer.

The Higher Education Amendments of 2007 (S. 1642) in the Senate include what has become known as the “Academic Bill of Rights” provision.  There are a number of conservative lawmakers in the Senate who strongly support this provision, which is a “Sense of the Congress,” carrying no force of law or sanctions, but which NEA views to be an attempt at a chilling effect regarding free speech by professors in classrooms.  To date, House staffers indicate there is no support for including this provision in their bill.

House education leaders say they would like to match the Senate's effort on the bill in October, indicating that reauthorization of the Higher Education Act may be completed before the end of the year.