Will Proposed Cuts to Public Service Loan Forgiveness Impact Existing Borrowers?
Us student loan borrowers are understandably concerned about parts of President Obama's proposed budget, but we would do well to remember that the budget proposal itself cannot, does not, and never will determine whether any future cuts to student loan forgiveness would apply to existing borrowers. The offending document, the Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2015, is a political document. It consists of 212 pages of budget overviews organized by agency and summary tables of the dollar amounts in question.…
President’s Budget Unsettling to High-Debt Student Loan Borrowers
On the one hand, the administration proposes to extend PAYE to all student borrowers starting in 2015, regardless of when they borrowed. That would be nice. But the administration proposes sharply reducing the loan forgiveness available to high-debt student loan borrowers (except they refer to these cuts as "reform[ing] the PAYE terms to ensure that program benefits are targeted to the neediest borrowers." The proposed "reforms" are a response to criticism arguing that existing forgiveness provisions permit already expensive schools…
President’s Proposed Budget is a Starting Point
I don't love everything in the President's proposed budget (more detail on that to follow). No one knows exactly what will happen, but we do know it is supremely unlikely that everything the administration has proposed will come to pass. The federal budget process is a mysterious process with lots of players. My thanks to the Washington Post for their a fantastic interactive tool explaining how it works. Here's a snapshot:
President’s FY 2015 Budget Recommends Tax Breaks For Students
On Monday, White House officials outlined in broad terms several of the President's tax priorities from his proposed fiscal year 2015 federal budget. Among the key provisions, his FY 2015 budget asks Congress to make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit, currently set to expire in December 2017. The administration says the credit will provide an average benefit of $1,110 to 11.5 million families. The benefit provides up to $2,500 in partially refundable tax credits for tuition. President Obama is also proposing a simplification…
Proposed Bill Aims to Bolster Accountability
U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Patty Murray (D-WA) have co-signed a bill that would establish benchmarks for college access, affordability and outcomes. Dubbed the “College Affordability and Innovation Act of 2014,” the bill also proposes the establishment of a competitive grant program to fund a series of pilot programs at a handful of institutions that wish to test innovative higher education programs. Among the bills key proposals: Establishes a 15-member commission on higher education accountability…
