Lawmakers introduce Higher Education Act reauthorization bill

According to NCHelp.org, House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-CA) and Representative Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) introduced H.R. 4137 which is a five-year reauthorization bill for the Higher Education Act (HEA). The bill contains many provisions, including:

* Expand college access for low-income and minority students by increasing the maximum Pell Grant award to $9,000, allowing students to receive year-round Pell Grant scholarships, and strengthening college readiness and early awareness programs.
* Increase college aid and support programs for veterans and military families.
* Streamline the federal student financial aid application to make it easier for all eligible students to access financial aid.
o Create two-page EZ FAFSA form for students who qualify for simplified needs and auto-zero-EFC;
o Reduce the number of data elements on the FAFSA by a half;
o Require Education Department to work with the IRS to get income information for the FAFSA in order to simplify process.
* Require greatly increased reporting on how colleges spend their money and create “Higher Education Price Increase Watch Lists” of institutions that increase their tuitions above the average for their peer institutions.
* Make textbook costs more manageable for students.
* Give the Department of Education increased authority to regulate private student loans, increase loan disclosure requirements and increase requirements for lenders and institutions participating in preferred lender arrangements.
o Require schools using preferred lender lists to inform students and parents why they choose each lender on the list and their right to choose lenders no included on the list
o Federal student loan preferred lender lists would need to consist of three unaffiliated lenders and private lender lists would need to consist of two unaffiliated lenders.
* Require lenders, secondary markets, holders or guaranty agencies to provide free of charge and in a timely and effective manner, any student loan information pertaining to federal loans by an institution of higher education for a borrower who had previously attended the institution or by any third-party servicer working on behalf of that institution to prevent student loan defaults
* Call for a study of the feasibility of developing a National Electronic Student Loan Marketplace for federal and private loans.
* Increase Perkins Loan limits from $4,000 to $5,000 for undergraduates and $6,000 to $8,000 for graduate students.
* Provide public service loan forgiveness for service in areas of national need including: early childhood educators; nurses; foreign language specialists; librarians; child welfare workers; and speech-language pathologists.

Please visit NCHelp.org’s PDF file about this to get more details.