The Federal Perkins Student Loan Program is in peril.
That is nothing new, of course. Perkins, the nation's longest-running student loan program, has been in the cross hairs of budget-cutting and reform-minded presidents and lawmakers for decades. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush tried to kill it; President Obama wants to overhaul it.
But the anxiety among advocates of the program has never been higher. With Republicans set to control both chambers of Congress come January, and two key allies heading home after losing their seats, supporters are deeply worried the program will be abolished in the name of simplification.
"The Republican desire to 'simplify, simplify, simplify,' in my mind, equals 'eliminate, eliminate, eliminate,'" said Cynthia A. Littlefield, vice president for federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.
Her fears aren't unfounded. Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who will chair the Senate education committee in the next Congress, has already offered a plan to consolidate six federal loan programs into three: an undergraduate-loan program, a graduate loan program, and a parent loan program. Republicans in the House of Representatives have also called for streamlining student aid.
Meanwhile, the Perkins program is losing two of its biggest champions: Rep. Timothy Bishop, Democrat of New York, and Rep. John F. Tierney, Democrat of Massachusetts. The lawmakers, who have beaten back past attempts to remake or end the program, were both defeated in this year's elections.
As it stands, the Perkins program is set to expire next September, along with the other federal student aid programs. Advocates fear that Republicans will allow the program to lapse or even abolish it in a budget reconciliation measure they're expected to introduce early next year.
On Wednesday financial aid directors at the Big Ten universities wrote to the heads of the House and Senate education committees, asking them to extend the program until Congress reauthorizes the Higher Education Act. Aid administrators in the Big Ten disbursed $67.6 million in Perkins loans to more than 39,000 students in the 2012-13 award year.
"This is the mother-ship program," said Susan Fischer, director of financial aid at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "This is Sputnik."
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Is-This-the-End-of-the-Line/150045