Dive Summary:
- More rigorous credit checks applied to PLUS Loans have forced thousands of students to leave historically black colleges and universities (HBCU).
- National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education data shows that parents of 15,000 students were denied PLUS Loans last fall because of a 2011 policy change that automatically disqualified borrowers with unpaid debts in the last five years that had been referred to collection agencies or ruled uncollectable.
- According to U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, Department of Education figures show that parents of 28,000 students at HBCUs were denied PLUS Loans as of February, while that figure jumped to 400,000 for all students at all schools.
From the article:
... “It’s been devastating,” said Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. “The loan helped bridge the gap. For students and colleges that didn’t have additional resources, those students had to go home. And to me, that’s just unacceptable.” ...