One Step at a Time

Many figures regarding higher education in America are encouraging: As of 2005, there were over eight million students attending four-year colleges, and that number is expected to increase by 16 percent by the year 2014. There are other numbers, however, that are depressing. These pertain to college loans, which are steadily increasing. Private lenders saw a 734 percent increase between 1993 and 2003 in the money they loaned to students, and it is these private loans compared to federal loans that have much higher interest rates and less flexible payments. About 15 percent of students at four-year colleges are now taking out these loans over federal alternatives because they are able to take out more money, helping them in the short run, but multiplying their debt down the road.

The US government needs to continue to encourage its students to attend college, and thus needs to take action against these trends. Ted Kennedy ’56 (D-Mass.), and other leading Democrats in the House of Representatives have begun to take the necessary steps. Kennedy and his political colleagues should be commended for trying to quell the growing tendency to opt for private rather than federal loans with a new bill called the “Strengthening Student Aid for All” act.

The most important change that this bill would enact would be to raise the maximum number of Pell Grants, the federal grant for students from low-income families, raising the grants $750 above their present ceiling. It is the specificity of this bill that tries to help students avoid private loans that is essential to its overall merit. To persuade students that have turned to the costlier private loans because they are able to borrow more money, Kennedy’s bill also raises the amount a student may borrow in a federal loan for a financially dependent undergraduate by $1,000, and by $2,000 for an independent undergraduate.

These initiatives will benefit students that are already in college and encourage those whose families are seriously weighing a college education compared to the heightened debt that comes with it to apply. The U.S. government needs to do more, however, to catalyze a shift of college financing from loans to grants. Many people regard paying for a college education a fiscal risk that they are not willing to pursue. It is crucial, however, that this perspective be reversed. Congressional motions like this are the first steps down a necessary but lengthy path.