House Education Leaders Highlight New Student Aid Report, Renew Calls for College Cost Solutions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. House Education Committee leaders today cited a new report, “Mortgaging our Future,” issued by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance as further evidence in favor of a renewed focus on hyperinflation in college costs.  The Advisory Committee serves as an independent source of advice and counsel to Congress and the Secretary of Education on student financial aid policy. 

With the federal commitment to student financial aid reaching a record high this year – including the establishment of new grant aid programs for low- and middle-income students – Education Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) and 21st Century Competitiveness Subcommittee Chairman Ric Keller (R-FL) renewed calls for reforms to help families overcome the chief barrier to college access: the ever-present increases in college costs.

“The federal investment in student aid has reached unprecedented levels – and continues to grow,” noted McKeon.  “To complement our commitment on this front, we also must get serious about dealing with the cost of a college education.  House Republicans took key steps toward doing just that when we backed the establishment of the college affordability index in the College Access & Opportunity Act passed by the House earlier this year.  Confronting head-on the rise in college costs is not just a matter of spending more and more federal dollars.  That commitment must be made in tandem with a sharper focus on how and why costs are increasing as rapidly as they are.”

The amount of federal student aid has reached nearly $90 billion annually, and just this year alone, Congress and the President have enacted legislation to:

• Reduce excessive federal subsidies for the student loan industry;

• Maintain current law written by Republicans and Democrats in 2002 and 2003 to establish a low, fixed-rate for student loans, which will provide millions of students greater financial certainty in the years to come;

• Increase loan limits for students so they can borrow more during their initial – and most critical – years in college;

• Provide additional grant money so more high-achieving, low- and middle-income high school students can attend college; and

• Establish a new scholarship program for high-achieving college students studying math, science, and critical foreign languages. 

In spite of this steady increase in student benefits, college costs have risen at an even more dramatic clip.  McKeon noted that low- and middle-income families struggling to keep pace with this intensifying trend do not have access to a standard measurement to compare tuition increases with other factors, leaving many without a means to compare college cost increases with other financial factors in their lives.  House Republicans moved earlier this year to establish a way to better track these spikes in college costs, through the creation of a College Affordability Index.

The index – which was included in the House-passed College Access & Opportunity Act (H.R. 609) – would publicly identify federally-funded institutions that repeatedly engage in excessive tuition hikes, giving consumers an index they can use to track tuition increases and make more informed decisions in their college spending.  Institutions with the largest spike in costs will be asked to provide information to the public about the causes of tuition increases, as well as strategies that will be used to help hold down tuition in the future.

“From a record $13 billion annual investment in Pell Grants to the elimination of the troubling shortfall in the Pell program, we’re upholding our commitment to providing more aid than ever to students attending college,” concluded Keller.  “But we’re not stopping there.  House Republicans want to take it a step further, confronting the greatest barrier of all to college access: out-of-control increases in college costs.”

For more information on the College Affordability Index, visit: http://edworkforce.house.gov/issues/109th/education/hea/dcb032806.htm.

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