Here are the highlights of a proposal from a coalition of student, consumer and higher education groups that was released today in a letter to Congressional leaders:
- Raise maximum Pell Grant up to $7,000 and fully fund it along with the current Pell shortfall.
- Increase federal work-study funding by 25%
- Improve access to Parent PLUS loans
- Provide simple PLUS application to parents
- Currently colleges decide whether or not parents are required to complete the FASFA to apply for a PLUS loan
- Consider ways to make PLUS loans more affordable
- Make sure that students whose parents have been denied a PLUS loan are aware that they can apply for additional unsubsidized Stafford loans.
- Provide simple PLUS application to parents
- Provide limited 'emergency access" student loan pool for colleges that commit to providing adequate need-based aid.
- Colleges would have to meet certain criteria and bear some of the risk
- Participation limited to colleges that commit to maintaining or increasing the proportion of student need covered by their own grant aid for the next two years
The letter to Speaker Pelosi was signed by the following groups:
American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
American Association of State Colleges and Universities
Campus Progress
Dēmos: A Network for Ideas & Action
Institute for Higher Education Policy
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
National Consumer Law Center
National Consumers League
State Higher Education Executive Officers
The Project on Student Debt
U.S. Public Interest Research Groups
United States Students Association