Higher Education Reauthorization Act Extension

HIGHER EDUCATION REAUTHORIZATION ACT EXTENSION

Ms. McCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, today the House will temporarily extend for 3 months the Higher Education Act. I rise today to support this extension and to express my concern for the dangerous direction in which this Congress has taken our country's college students and our Nation's valued higher education system.

The Republican leadership has failed college students and their families by pushing through a reauthorization bill that does nothing to make college more affordable as tuition continues to increase at a rate faster than inflation. Instead of helping students and families deal with the rising price to attend college, Republicans also passed legislation cutting $12 billion from the student loan program--the largest cut in the history of federal student financial aid.

In addition to cutting Federal aid, the Republican leadership has made loans more expensive. And the bad news keeps coming. Recent reports confirm what struggling families already know--students and families are going deeper and deeper into debt to finance a college education. The Project on Student Loan Debt, a non-profit advocacy group, has found that the percentage of graduate seniors who have debt loads of $40,000 or more have increased from 1.3 percent to 8 percent between 1993 and 2004.

Another recent report done by the Public Interest Research Group's Higher Education Project shows that 25 percent of public school graduates and 38 percent of private school graduates who become new teachers can't afford to pay their student debt on their salaries. Social workers in the same situation number even more--37 percent of public and 55 percent of private school graduates can't afford their student loan payments. More and more students are graduating with student loan debt numbers in the six figures. This is unmanageable and unfair and Congress can be a better partner in making the possibility of going to college more attainable--especially for middle- and low-income students.

Another troubling statistic has emerged--during the 2004-2005 school year--student borrowing of private loans increased by 30 percent. Private student loans are often used to bridge the gap between traditional financial aid and the cost of tuition--but they are more costly to students and families. In addition to being costlier, these private loans do not share some of the features of Federal student loans that are backed by the government, including deferment of payments and the rates at which interest may accrue.

What's more, starting July 1, Federal student loans will carry a higher fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent, an increase from the current 5.3 percent. That's why I support Democratic plans to provide substantive increases to the Pell Grant and to cut the student loan interest rates in half. As a co-sponsor of the Reverse the Raid on Student Aid Act, I believe that Congress can be a better partner for those students and their families who--as we debate these very issues that affect them--are sitting at kitchen tables across the country trying to figure out how to piece together the finances to attend college this fall.

There is some good news in this extension. The good news is that the current law that will be extended today is better than the Republican bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, H.R. 609, which does nothing to make college more affordable for students--the expressed purpose of the Higher Education Act. It makes no sense to make college more expensive by amending a law that exists to promote access to a college education.

College students should not be forced to bear the weight of President Bush's and this Republican Congress's irresponsible fiscal policies that have slashed student aid in order to pay for tax cuts that only benefit one percent of the nation's wealthiest. As I've stated in earlier extensions--today, this temporary extension is necessary, but I will continue to work to ensure that students will not be forced to pay for this enormous deficit now through financial aid cuts--or in the future as taxpayers.

http://thomas.loc.gov