House Passes FY2010 Appropriations Bill
Abstract: By a vote of 264 to 153, the House passed its FY 2010 Labor, HHS, and Education appropriations spending bill (H.R. 3293) on Friday. The bill would provide level funding for most Title IV discretionary programs. The bill would set the appropriated amount of the Pell Grant to a maximum award of $4,860. A scheduled mandatory increase from the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) would add an additional $690 to the appropriated amount, bringing the total Federal Pell Grant to $5,550 for the 2010-11 award year.
The full article is available on the NASFAA website.
In a story that aired June 24, 2009, ABC News explored how the recession is affecting this summer’s college graduates. "Job opportunities are scarce," reports ABC News. "When these graduates do secure employment, the recession will likely depress their earning power. Still, financial aid experts insist student loans are a good investment.
"If historical trends hold true, even through this recession, students are going to be far better off getting a college education, said Justin Draeger, NASFAA Vice President of Vice President of Public Policy, Advocacy, and Research." That’s because over a 40 year career, college grads earn 61 percent more than their peers.
For more on this story, watch the video Graduating Without a Job.
Quoted In: An Experiment in Merit-Based Student Aid Is Likely to End (Chronicle of Higher Education)
“The Obama administration has no plans to renew the Bush-era [Academic] Competitiveness Grants and their companion, the National Smart Grants, beyond their 2011 expiration date, meaning a likely end for America’s short-lived experiment with merit-based federal financial aid,"Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "Instead, the administration will focus its resources on the popular Pell Grant program, which is strictly need-based. Normally, efforts to end student-aid programs face fierce resistance from colleges. This time, though, hardly anyone is complaining. Created by Congress in 2006, the two programs have been an administrative nightmare for financial-aid officers, have never met participation targets, and have been criticized in Washington by Democrats and Republicans alike. "Few financial-aid administrators – and few students – will be shedding many tears for these programs that have disproportionately required so much administrative burden for schools and students and provided so little benefit in return," said Justin Draeger, vice president for public policy, advocacy, and research at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators."
You can read the complete June 26, 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education article on-line.
The stimulus plan provides billions of dollars to not only state and local governments, highway departments, national parks, police departments and schools, but to consumers. And the question becomes: What’s in it for me? The law, which Obama signed Tuesday to revive the moribund economy, offers a range of financial benefits: People paying college tuition can get tax credits, more grant money and clearance to use 529 college savings plans for computer purchases.
The plan also will add $200 million to the $1.1 billion work-study budget, allowing tens of thousands more students to earn an average of $1,479 to help pay their tuition.
"What this means is that more students will be able to participate in work-study," said Justin S. Draeger, vice president for planning at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. "Students who participate in work-study are more likely to graduate."
The full article was originally published in The Washington Post on Feb. 22nd.
The U.S. Treasury agreed to commit as much as $60 billion to shore up the market for student loans and help reduce the illiquid assets clogging banks’ balance sheets, according to three people familiar with the matter. The department will use its Federal Financing Bank to provide a backstop for an initiative put together by Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley, the people said. The so-called conduit will purchase existing and new student loans from banks, and issue asset-backed commercial paper to finance itself.
The conduit will be an improvement over the temporary programs because those have only been available to lenders with cash on hand, said Justin Draeger, vice president of planning with the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, which represents about 3,000 colleges and universities.
Because the conduit will buy old loans, “lenders who have been forced out of the market should be able to reenter it,” Draeger said. He said the program provides “vital” assurances for the type of loans that make up the largest part of most students’ financial-aid packages.
The full article was originally published in Bloomberg on January 29th.
