5 Ways the New Spending Bill Could Help You Pay for College
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People worried about the high cost of college have a lot to celebrate in the $1.3 trillion spending bill that was signed Friday by President Donald Trump.
Though higher education initiatives garnered less attention than other parts of the bipartisan legislation, hundreds of millions of dollars were added to increase funding or create new programs aimed at making college more affordable and reducing student debt.
“The money is peanuts relative to the federal budget, but the increases for these programs are meaningful,” says Jessica Thompson, policy and research director at The Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit that advocates for college access and affordability.
The money is going to a wide variety of programs, from increasing grants for lower-income students to new initiatives that could bring down the cost of textbooks and make it easier for low-income parents to attend school.
Though the legislation funds the federal government only through Sept. 30, the education programs are likely to continue beyond that.
“Congress wants stability for the programs it oversees, and it is budgeting for what it thinks it can cover on an ongoing basis,” Thompson says.
The money Congress is funneling toward higher education is a marked contrast to calls by the Trump administration to slash spending on college financial aid.
Trump’s budget proposal, for example, proposed eliminating a loan-cancellation program for public-sector workers and halving the federal work-study jobs program for college students. Instead, the omnibus spending bill adds $140 million to the work-study program and expands eligibility for the public service loan-forgiveness program.
Here’s a look at the key provisions of the bill that could affect those going to college or carrying student debt.
1. Bigger grants for low-income students. The spending bill increases the maximum Pell Grant to $6,095 for the 2018-2019 school year, up from $5,920. While that’s only a 3 percent increase, it will help offset the expiration of an annual inflation adjustment in Pell Grants. About 7 million students use Pell Grants, which go to people whose families earn less than $50,000 a year. Also, $107 million was added to the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant budget, which provides up to $4,000 to 1.6 million low-income college students. The SEOG program now has an annual budget of $840 million.
2. Lower-cost textbooks. Congress created a $5 million fund for open textbook initiatives, which could replace high-cost published materials with free educational resources that can be accessed online or downloaded. Two-thirds of students have skipped buying books because of the high out-of-pocket costs, according to U.S. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group), which pushed for the initiative.
3. More money for work-study jobs. Under this program, the federal government gives money to schools that provide part-time jobs to students. The budget for work-study, used by about 300,000 students, was boosted by $140 million, to $1.13 billion.
4. Help for students who are parents. The Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools program, which helps low-income parents pay child-care costs while they pursue a degree, got a 230 percent increase in its budget, to $50 million.
5. Expanded eligibility for public service loan forgiveness. The bill gives $350 million to the program, which promises borrowers who make 10 years of payments and work in the nonprofit or public sector that their remaining student debt will be erased. The bill provides money to expand the program to borrowers who were in an ineligible payment plan.
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