Feature Story

September 19, 2007

Congress Expands Access to Postsecondary Education and Training for Low-income Adults

From Center for Law and Social Policy:

On September 7, 2007, Congress enacted H.R. 2669, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which will raise the maximum Pell Grant to $5,400 over five years and halve interest rates on subsidized student loans. The act is part of the budget reconciliation process, which secured billions of dollars for increasing Pell Grants and for reducing student loan interest rates by cutting nearly $21 billion from subsidies to student lenders.

While many of the act's benefits are directed toward traditional students, we applaud members of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the House's Education and Labor Committee for recognizing the importance of also expanding access for nontraditional students.

The act substantially helps nontraditional students, such as working adults and older youth, by expanding grant aid and simplifying access to aid.

The act increases the income protection allowance (IPA), the amount of income a student can keep for living expenses before it reduces student aid.

Federal policy previously capped Pell Grants below the maximum level for students at colleges where tuition was very low, a provision known as "tuition sensitivity."

Current financial aid rules count EIC payments as income, although eligibility rules for other federal assistance programs do not.

Federal law currently lists examples of students who may fall into this category; the act expands this list to include independent students who are recently unemployed, those whose family member is a dislocated worker, and homeless students.

We are actively working with congressional education committee members to address some important remaining issues for nontraditional students, particularly around supporting student success, partnering with business to prepare nontraditional students for family-supporting jobs, and innovating in college remediation to increase completion rates.

Read more from this post.