To the editor:
As Vermont media have reported, the fate of federal education loan legislation is now tied to that of health care reform in the wake of congressional leaders’ decision to join the two measures in a strategy to win votes.
Vermont Student Assistance Corporation is grateful that Vermont officials, at both the state and federal levels, are working hard to ensure a role for nonprofits like VSAC in a reformed system. Their goal, and ours, is to preserve vital college planning and financing services on which Vermonters depend.
Education loan reform was originally promoted as a way to make college more affordable through increases in federal Pell grants. However, early estimates revealed an average Pell increase of only $200 a year – a smaller amount than has been approved in prior years without the legislation. The federal Department of Education’s latest numbers show that Vermonters on average will receive only $110 a year more.
Further, the department’s projections of total Pell dollars available to Vermont appear to be way off. In its calculations, the department assumed that Vermont would see the same population increase as high-growth western states, when in fact the state is experiencing a 17-percent decline in high school population. The department has resisted requests for clarification.
We remain concerned that neither the original nor the combined bill has done enough to address high interest rates charged on federal student and parent loans. In the earlier bill, some of the government’s loan profits were to be funneled into other education programs. Now, some of those programs are being axed so that loan profits can be used to pay for health care reform. This approach of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” is unfair to families struggling to pay for higher education.
Irene Racz
Director of Public Affairs
Vermont Student Assistance Corporation
