Not only did a health care bill get passed this week to help out our families but a student loan reform bill was also passed to help us as students. Obama quotes,"Education. Health care. Two of the most important pillars of a strong America grew stronger this week. These achievements don't represent the end of our challenges; nor do they signify the end of the work that faces our country. But what they do represent is real and major reform."
What the student loan reform bill did was ended the current programt that subsidized banks and other financial institutions. Instead of this, students will now be able to borrow directly from the federal government. The passing of this bill also greatly increases the Pell grant program for low-income students. They also want to try getting more support for minority-serving institutions and historically-black colleges. Another project under this reform is to help renew community colleges.
Obama also states on this reform, "Year after year, we've seen billions of taxpayer dollars handed out as subsidies to the bankers and middlemen who handle federal student loans when that money should have gone to advancing the dreams of our students and working families." He also quotes,"But this time, we said, would be different. We said we'd stand up to the special interests, and stand up for the interests of students and families. That's what happened this week. And I commend all the senators and representatives who did the right thing." I really do think that everything that Obama is doing for us with the student loan reform is amazing. It will help out so many students and not only save the government money and tax payers money from being given to banks and others who work with student loans but to us as students. I think it is great that Obama is looking out for. College is expensive enough just pay for books, rent, food let alone our tuition, fees and loan costs. No one wants to get out of college and have a huge stack of debts on them to pay back. By passing this loan he is helping us with that cause.
It is said that the legislation would save an estimated $61 billion over 10 years. Another things that will be starting in 2014 is that the legislation is going to cap a graduates' annual student loan repayment at 10 percent of their incom. This was a great thing to read for me and I'm sure anyone that is going to college. I remember my aunt telling me how much she had to pay back in student loans when she finally got out and started working. It took her 10 years just to pay them off and it was not easy to come up with that much extra money each month. I think that having this cap will be great for all of us. It will assure that we have enough of our checks to pay off our loan each month but also enough to live off of.
By July 1st, universities and colleges must have their computers ready to go and hooked up to work directly with the Education Department. They have about three months to get all of these things accomplished and ready to.
It is great to think of all the money being saved and the more opportunity for bigger grants and financial aid to be awarded to working students.
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Whether an individual is a fan of President Obama or not, Americans need to realize that he's actually working to follow through on his campaign promises...something that happens not nearly enough with U.S. presidents. I think that the help for students is fantastic. (Especially since I know several who simply cannot afford to go to college, even though a college education--usually anyway--brings in higher-paying jobs than just a high school education does.) The passing of this bill should be a beneficial step into the future of America.
ReplyDeletePresident Obama is doing a great thing. He did promise so what he promise he should follow through. It is nice to see America saving money. With America's debt they need to save as much as they can. Every student should have the right to go to college. With this bill it should help those students that are unfortunate to have the money to go to college. For some students that graduate can not find or make enough money to pay back there student loans. That is very stressful. I hope I will be able to pay off my college loans with no problems but I doubt that will happen.
ReplyDeleteI have served as the Student Legislative Affairs Committee Chair at the North Dakota Student Association and this is one of the things that we had reviewed this year. We were conclusive in our decision that the Students of the North Dakota University system would benifit from this new reform as long as the Bank of North Dakota was able to handle the loans. It was passed that the Bank of North Dakota would be able to handle the loans, which is a very important in the due to the amount of loans that currently go throught the BND. This does put the government in even more control of loans and limits the amount of banks who will be able to distibute loans. I think this is a step in the right direction in allowing for more finacial aid for students who strugle to afford higher education.
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