Dive Brief:
- After Senate education committee leader Lamar Alexander effectively killed the Perkins Loan program in September by refusing to put an extension bill up for a vote, that chamber will consider a new bill that could keep the program going for two years, though in altered form.
- The Chronicle of Higher Education reports the proposed bill would limit the loan program to undergraduates, besides those graduate students who currently receive the loans and could get them again through the next academic year, and it would require students to max out on unsubsidized Stafford Loans before getting the lower-interest Perkins.
- As the bill has the support of Sen. Alexander, it is expected to pass through the Senate and then the House, but the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators worries the eligibility changes will create "a slippery slope of a precedent."
Dive Insight:
Alexander kept a bill that would have extended the Perkins Loan program in its prior form from reaching the full Senate for a vote leading up to the Sept. 30 expiration of the program. Legislators in the House passed a one-year extension, providing time for the program to continue while Congress debates reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
Supporters of the Perkins Loan program say it is exactly the type of shared accountability loan program that makes colleges and universities liable for graduates' success. Getting rid of it seemed incongruous for legislators like Alexander who have argued for more skin in the game on the part of higher education institutions. Financial aid more generally is likely to get an overhaul in the new version of the HEA as Alexander wants to streamline federal grant and loan programs.