Higher Ed Watch - logo
 

Ed Money Watch on Proposed Pell Grant Formula Change

July 27, 2009 - 11:01am

We'll be back tomorrow at our usual time. But in the meantime, check out this post on our sister blog Ed Money Watch. In this item, our resident federal budget expert Jason Delisle explains how the new Pell Grant funding formula included in the student-loan reform legislation the House Committee on Education and Labor approved last week wouldn't necessarily guarantee students a rising Pell Grant each year. President Obama had proposed financing the program entirely through mandatory funding, meaning that spending for the program would no longer be determined through the annual appropriations process. The House bill, however, would ultimately continue to leave it up to appropriators to determine most Pell Grant funding as well as the maximum grant each year.

Stay tuned for more coverage of the House bill in the days ahead.

Comments

Loan repayments

Since SallieMae does not allow borrowers to refinance an adjustable rate, student loan to a lower percentage and/or a fixed rate, can the Federal loan programs come up with a way to buy back the student's principal on the private loan and convert it to a loan that can be refinanced to a lower percentage fixed rate loan?

Why should the student be punished by having to keep an adjustable rate loan? After all, paying back $150,000 in student loans is not a picnic, especially when the degree is in an industry that was doing good when the student entered college but now no new jobs exist or appear on the horizon after graduation.