WASHINGTON -- Over 400 students from across the country are in Washington this week to lobby Congress as representatives of the American Student Association of Community Colleges (ASACC). One of the top items on their agenda is to advocate Rep. Tom Petri's Student Aid Reward (STAR) Act, a bill which would boost Pell Grants through encouraging colleges to use the most cost-effective of the federal government's two major student loan programs.

Petri said that his Student Aid Reward Act would save billions of dollars if the nation's colleges provided loans from the federal government through the efficient Direct Student Loan Program rather than through the much older Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program which operates by heavily subsidizing private banks. To encourage schools to switch to direct loans, Petri said his bill would return half of the savings to participating colleges in order to strengthen Pell Grants for low-income students by up to an extra $1,000 per grant.

For students, the terms of FFEL and Direct Loans are the same. Savings made from switching to Direct Loans would come solely from greater efficiencies inherent in the management of Direct Loans.

At a breakfast event Monday morning Petri received the ASACC's Student Life Award for his efforts on behalf of student aid and other educational initiatives. The award was presented by Ruth Lucatero, a Sheboygan native and ASACC Representative of the Great Lakes Region who said, "He has done a wonderful job."

Rep. Thomas E. Petri is presented with the Student Life Award by Ruth Lucatero, a Sheboygan, WI native who is also a Great Lakes Region Representative of the American Student Association of Community Colleges.

Petri said, "I think it's important that students not only work hard to get a good education leading to a good job, but [also] take the time to figure out how different programs work and try to make them better. And they are visiting from all across the United States - some 400 students from Wisconsin, from California, from New York and other places, to advocate the most cost- effective programs that they possibly can to help Congress do a better job of providing access to higher education."