updated on 09/21/05
Senate Actions on HEA

House Actions | Senate Actions | NEA Actions

Legislation Introduced	NEA Lobby Actions
	NEA's letter to Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee on proposals to reauthorize the Higher Education Act.
S.1793 College Quality, Affordability and Diversity Improvement Act of 2003 by Senator Edward Kennedy (D - MA). Here's an overview of the bill (, 56k) prepared by thee legislative committee.	Read NEA's comments (, 21k) and summary of the bill.

S.1793 College Quality, Affordability and Diversity Improvement Act of 2003 is summarized below:

• Increases and expands student aid programs, including Pell Grants, SEOG, HOPE Scholarship Tax Credit.
• Takes a huge step toward making Pell Grants a mandatory program in the federal budget by making current levels of Pell Grants mandatory while continuing to include increases for Pell Grants on the discretionary side of the budget.
• Reduces fees and other costs associated with student aid, including eliminating origination fees, providing a tax credit as opposed to the current deduction for student loan interest, reducing from 25 years to 10 years the time that a person employed in the public sector can be in income-contingent repayment before outstanding debt is forgiven, enabling all graduates to refinance their student loans when the market is favorable, as with home mortgages, rather than limiting refinancing/consolidation to one time only, and rewarding schools and students for participating in Federal Direct Loan Program rather than private bank student loan programs. Provisions also seek to close the loophole that provides certain lenders with a windfall profit.
• Assists working students by exempting the first $9,000 of a college student's earnings (dependent student) and the first $18,000 of adult student earnings (independent students with dependents other than a spouse, where as those with only a spouse as a dependent would get the first $13,000 exempted).
• Assists low income and minority students to get access to and complete postsecondary education by increasing funding for GEAR Up, TRIO, and LEAP, increasing access to SAT and ACT test prep programs; creates two new retention programs for institutions serving high proportions of low income students; and expands support for minority serving institutions.
• Allows students with drug convictions who have served or paid all criminal penalties to be eligible for federal financial aid.
• Increases authorized funding for the Teacher Quality Enhancements Grants by more than double, and turns it into a state grant program once it reaches a threshold of $270 million (currently funded at $90 million); expands the program to include a focus on teacher prep coursework that focuses on helping all students achieve to high standards and the integration of state standards and accountability into the classroom; creates a new mentoring program for teachers, a new home loan program for recruiting teachers to high need districts, a new program linking community colleges and four-year teacher prep programs, and a new program to train paraprofessionals in high need communities to become teachers
• On the issue of college costs, the bill contains a provision, one of its more controversial, on requiring states to maintain 90% of their previous year’s state fiscal support for higher education in order to be eligible to receive “new financial aid.” Specifically, the institutions could accept Pell Grant money from students only up to the maximum individual grant amount if they have not maintained their state funding, at least to the 90% level. So if Pell Grant maximums go up, an institution could not accept the “increased” amount from a student if the state had not maintained its effort. This provision is one of several, including convening a college cost summit, aimed at addressing increasing college costs. The goal is to put pressure on states to not hack away at higher education budgets every time there is even the slightest budget shortfall (let alone the huge shortfalls now being experienced). However, concerns have been raised by the NEA and others that the poorest students, those eligible for the Pell Grant maximum, are punished along with the schools because they can't get their deserved funds to attend the institution of their choice. In addition, institution's budgets are then even more adversely affected because they can't get the tuition funds from those students. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy’s staff indicated they are willing to talk through the provisions of legislative bill S.1973 introduced by the Senator and potentially modify them to achieve the most effective and workable outcome.

return to Follow HEA