Snap Fact #148

Sources:

Making College more Affordable

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/higher-education

Obama signs Overhaul of Student Loan Program

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/us/politics/31obama.html

The Health Care & Education Reconciliation Act expands educational opportunities for America’s students and families. This law strengthens the Pell Grant program, invests in community colleges, gives support to historically Black colleges and universities as well as those who serve a large proportion of minorities, and helps student borrowers manage their loan debt. With this act, along with the Recovery Act and President Obama’s first two budgets, there will be more than double the total amount of funding available for Pell Grants for students since the president took office. The act also helps with some of the shortfalls of the Pell Grant program, thereby placing it back onto a secure path for many years to come.

Also, the President took out the middleman out of the equation. Formally, banks made the loans and the program provided the banks with a substantial profit that added to the costs for the students. All new federal student loans will be direct loans, delivered and collected by private companies under performance-based contracts with the Department of Education.

All of these improvements to the old way of doing the business of student loans will help Barack Obama reach his goal of the United States having the largest proportion of college students in the world by 2020.