Two U.S. representatives will present a bill on Tuesday to increase college affordability through changes to grant funding, federal work-study and student loan policies.

The College Affordability Act would update the federal Higher Education Act of 1965 for the first time in over a decade. Members of the House Committee on Education and Labor will debate and amend the proposed legislation on Tuesday morning.

Reps. Bobby Scott, D-VA., and Jahana Hayes, D-CT., detailed the College Affordability Act in a conference call with several student publications on Monday night.

“This bill will open access to opportunity for so many people who seek college or secondary education as a pathway to success,” Hayes said.

Scott, chairman of the House Education Committee, and Hayes will present the bill to the rest of the committee. The legislation aims to decrease the cost of higher education by increasing federal and state investment in public colleges.

The bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant amount that could be awarded by $500. The grant would also be adjusted for inflation.

Private school affordability would increase for low-income students by increasing Pell Grant funding, Scott said. It would be the “single largest increase” in Pell Grant funding since 1965, when the program was created, he said.

Other need-based grant programs would expand, including the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program and the TEACH Grant Program, meant for students who agree to teach after college. Federal work-study jobs would be tailored to students’ individual courses of study, Scott said.

“You can talk about work-study as essentially paid internships in the line of study that you’re actually studying,” he said. “So that when you graduate you actually got experience not just in a job on campus, but in a job related to your career.”

Changes in the bill also include expanded access to on-campus services and flexible options for college. This includes child care and small grants to help with financial emergencies.

The bill is expected to cost around $400 billion over the next decade. Scott is encouraging the House Committee on Ways and Means to create a pay force to fund the act, he said. He hoped some of the funding would come out of an appeal of a $1.5 trillion tax cut that House Republicans passed two years ago.

“It’s a matter of priorities,” he said. “So hopefully some of that will be an appeal of their tax cut. But that’s up to the Ways and Means Committee.”

The only other way to pay for the act would be to cut other education programs, but Scott said he refused that option.

House Republicans have rejected the bill, calling the bill’s requirements “burdensome” and “bureaucratic red tape,” The New York Times reported.

Included in the bill’s provisions is a federal-state partnership that would allow for investment in states that agree to waive tuition for community college.

Other changes presented in the bill include:

• Institutions that seek a religious exemption from Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination, would need to disclose the rationale behind the exemption to officials and both current and prospective students.
• The act would simplify the repayment process for student loan borrowers. It would remove penalties for individuals who defer their loans due to unemployment or financial hardship. At least half of the bill’s proposed $400 billion cost would go toward the overhaul of loan policies, The New York Times reported.
• Undocumented immigrants who entered the U.S. before 16 years of aged or served in the military would have access to federal student aid. This includes Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipients.

Published on October 28, 2019 at 11:59 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326