You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Financial Aid’ category.
News reports this morning suggest that summer Pell Grants will be eliminated under President Obama’s budget deal with congressional Republicans, but that the Pell program would be otherwise untouched.
The elimination of summer Pell comes as no surprise, as Obama floated the cut in his own budget proposal two months ago. But as course offerings are being scaled back at campuses across the country, ending aid for summer classes will make it even more difficult for low-income students to complete their degree requirements in a reasonable time.
Republicans had sought to cut the maximum Pell Grant award, which now stands at $5,550, by fifteen percent.
The American Civil Liberties Union is offering fifteen college scholarships to high school seniors who have “demonstrated a strong commitment to civil liberties through some form of activism.” The ACLU Youth Activist Scholars will receive $7000 each, and will “be invited to participate in ongoing activities with the ACLU, including the Youth Activist Institute training program at the ACLU National office in New York City.”
Candidates for the scholarships must be nominated by their local ACLU affiliates (a directory of affiliates can be found here), and the application deadline is November 30.
The long-term residency of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States, many of whom came here as children with their families, provokes an ambivalence in American voters and politicians that’s unmatched by any other issue.
The governing board of North Carolina’s community college system, the third largest in the country, has changed its rules on the admission of undocumented students four times in the last nine years. On Friday, the board board reversed itself yet again, overturning a 16-month-old policy that had barred such students from its campuses.
The victory for such students is a limited one, however. Under the new regulations, only those who have graduated from an American high school will be eligible to enroll. They will also be required to pay tuition at out-of-state rates — more than $7,000 a year — and will be ineligible for financial aid.
The policy, which will face a final vote in the state’s General Assembly next spring, is intended to bring CC admissions procedures in line with those of the UNC system, which recently adopted a similar approach.
Nine states have passed laws allowing undocumented students to enroll in their public colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates, while only three have explicitly banned such eligibility by statute. According to Inside Higher Ed, this policy change would leave South Carolina as the only state that bars such students from higher education completely.
Policies on undocumented students are attracting new attention this fall as the DREAM Act — a federal law that would allow some undocumented immigrants to establish permanent legal residency by completing college coursework — moves forward in the US Congress.
SAFRA, the Student Aid and Financial Responsibility Act, passed the House of Representatives yesterday in a 253-171 vote. If passed by the Senate later this fall, SAFRA will end government subsidies to private student loan companies, move those loans federal direct loan program, and use the savings to increase aid to students and colleges by $8 billion a year.
This is a very big deal.
The House’s endorsement of loan reform is a huge step forward, but SAFRA contains another component that’s also worth paying attention to. Since 1998, the Higher Education Act’s Aid Elimination Penalty (AEP) has denied federal financial aid to students with drug convictions on their records. Commit robbery or rape and you can still receive financial aid, but if you’re busted with pot you’re out of luck.
Two hundred thousand American students have lost financial aid because of this law since it went into effect a decade ago, but in the version of SAFRA passed yesterday, the AEP has been scaled back dramatically. If the House language makes it into the final bill, AEP will now apply only those students who are convicted of selling drugs while actually receiving financial aid.
Observers are predicting a tough fight for SAFRA in the Senate, where private lenders are gearing up to protect their turf. We’ll keep you informed as the situation develops.
The landmark Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) is moving toward a vote in the House of Representatives today.
SAFRA is the most significant piece of financial aid legislation to be taken up by the US Congress in decades. You can follow the progress of the bill at the United States Student Association homepage, or by checking in on the #SAFRA hashtag on Twitter.
I’ll be spending most of today teaching, but I’ll update here when I get the chance, and post news and links at the @studentactivism Twitter feed in the meantime.
studentactivism.net 
Recent Comments