This afternoon at the Capitol, Senator Kennedy and Representative George Miller held a press conference to celebrate the impending success of legislation that will help college students pay for school. 

In the world of government-supplied financial aid, students have several options, such as state grants, federal Pell grants, and a few different types of loans, including those that students take out themselves, and those that parents sign on for.  Kennedy and company went on for about 45 minutes about the somewhat unlikely agreement that has been reached not only in the House and Senate, but with the White House as well. They called the pair of bills, “the largest increase in college and student aid since the GI Bill.” Considering that the status of student loans and federal grants has been stagnant/declining for the last few years, this is a much needed and vast improvement.

The Student Debt Relief Act the College Cost Reduction and Access Act do several crucial things, including reducing loan payments to no more than 15% of your monthly income. It also makes more Pell grant money available to students by raising the maximum, and hopefully by increasing future funding after appropriations. The bills also accomplish college loan forgiveness after 10 years of working at a public service job. So if you’re planning to be a librarian, nurse, public defender, or something else to that general effect, this is excellent news for you. And, it makes a new investment in historically Black colleges and universities, as well as Hispanic serving institutions. All of this is excellent news, especially if you’re the average college student and plan to graduate with somewhere near $18,000 worth of debt.

You can read the full text of House bill HR 2669:

http://kennedy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HR2669_conf_report.pdf

Or the details of Senate bill S 359:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN00359:@@@L&summ2=m&