The Assosciated Press published a review of the surge in loan elimination in private schools for middle- to upper-class income students, and quoted Michael Dannenberg, Education Program Director with the New America Foundation.

... Michael Dannenberg, a scholar at the New America Foundation, notes that's also approximately the figure Congress spent this year to cut student loan interest rates from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent -- for the whole country. ...

Ultimately, however, other factors will play a much bigger role in college affordability for most people than Harvard's policies for its 6,600 undergraduates.

For instance, maximum Pell Grants -- the main federal aid program for low-income students -- are set to rise from $4,310 to $4,731 this year under a spending bill passed Wednesday by Congress -- though that's a $69 cut from what students had been promised.

But the biggest factor is the economy, says Dannenberg of the New America Foundation. Historically, when the economy falters, state funding for higher education is first to take a hit, and public college tuition soars.

"You could have this coming phenomenon where higher education at the elite colleges is becoming more affordable for the talented elite students who are accepted, but education for the masses to attend state and community colleges could become less affordable." ...

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