Bush budget boosts Pell grant but cuts loan subsidies: overhauling financial aid is on the agenda.IT IS FEDERAL BUDGET TIME AGAIN, BUT THIS YEAR THE PROPOSED numbers stand to shake up the status qua in higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. . President Bush's proposed 2008 $56 billion education budget includes a plan to cut, among other things, about $18.8 billion in federal subsidies to the banks and financial institutions that make college loans. These federal subsidies have been the target of criticism for several years, but they will now be addressed by a proposal that takes the savings and pours them into the Pell Grant The Pell Grant program is a type of post-secondary, educational federal grant program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. It is named after U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell and originally known as the the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program. program--boosting the latter by about $20 billion. If the president gets his way, the maximum annual Pell award would climb from the current $4,050 to $5,400 by 2012. Before that happens, though, the budget will have to be approved by a Democratic-controlled Congress whose leaders are already at work on revamping education funding, but who are not entirely in step with Bush's plans. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, told the press that while cuts in subsidies to student loan lenders are long overdue, he will fight the president's other money-saving proposals. Namely, he opposes the president's plan to cut the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG SEOG Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant ), the Perkins program, the Leveraging Educational Assistance partnership (LEAP), and the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarships. The American Council on Education Established in 1918, the American Council on Education (ACE) is a United States organization comprising over 1,800 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education-related associations, organizations, and corporations. estimates that these cuts would free up $942 million for other higher ed student aid programs, yet cautions that cuts will hurt students in the short term. Kennedy is also pushing for students to borrow direct government loans and avoid loans that go through banks and other commercial lenders. Currently the SEOG program provides grants to 1.3 million students. ACE estimates that one million students will lose money in the short term, although the administration argues that they will eventually gain the money back with the Pell Grant increases. "Last year this program funded $772 million to students," notes Larry Zaglaniczny, director of congressional relations for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. NASFAA NASFAA National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators , as well, is opposing these program cuts. The president's proposed budget also calls for an increase from $5,500 to $7,500 in the minimum that a student can borrow through the Direct Loan and the Federal Family Education Loan programs The Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) is a United States Department of Education program that provides for private organizations to market, originate, and service federally guaranteed loans, such as Stafford and PLUS loans to students and their parents. . This increase would apply to undergraduates who are in at least their third year of study. Proposed federal legislation would cut interest rates in half for subsidized Stafford loans. The average borrower would save $4,420 in college loan payments. This move would help low-and middle-income families. SOUND BITE sound bite n. A brief statement, as by a politician, taken from an audiotape or videotape and broadcast especially during a news report: "The box has been spitting forth maddening nine-second sound bites" 'Larry Summers, we Couldn't have done it without you.' --Kim Gandy, president, National Organization for Women on the appointment of Drew Gilpin Faust Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust (born September 18 1947[1]) is an American historian and the first female president of Harvard University. [2] Faust, the former Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, is also Harvard's first president since 1672 as the next president of Harvard University The President is the chief administrator of Harvard University. Ex officio the chairman of the Harvard Corporation, she is appointed by and is responsible to the other members of that body, who delegate to her the day-to-day running of the university. . |
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