Higher Education In The News

For Crystal N. Baxley, a student at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the signing of the College Cost Reduction Act by President Bush this week signalled the completion of lobbying efforts by students and the promise that college costs will become less burdensome.

Baxley, an intern with the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, is a sophomore studying social thought and political economy who joined an effort on the campus to see legislation written by U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., signed into law.

The president signed the bill - which becomes effective in the 2008-09 school year - that had passed in the House and Senate on Thursday. In doing so, the president approved raising federal Pell grants by $500 a year, and to $5,400 by 2012, as well as simplifying the affordability and financial process for students to obtain the grants.

The law, written by Kennedy as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, also halves interest rates to 3.4 percent for undergraduates with subsidized student loans, and caps monthly payments at 15 percent of discretionary income.

"This was one of our major campaigns - college affordability and textbook affordability," said Baxley. "Those are the two big campaigns because it really affects us as students."

She said that 20 percent of the student body at UMass in Amherst have Pell grants to help pay for college tuition, while another 61 percent of students graduate with loans averaging about $14,672.

She said her textbooks cost more than $500 a semester.

Baxley said she knows of students who have had to leave four-year institutions and enroll in community colleges because of the finances.

"This bill doesn't solve all of our problems, but it is definitely a great step in the right direction for making higher education affordable to everyone," she said.

The bill is estimated to reduce interest rates for more than five million low- and middle-income student borrowers, and will create a loan repayment program that will be based on a graduate's income.

"It definitely affects our everyday lives," Baxley said. "Whether we can afford the finances determines if we can come here.

"This is also a double whammy for us, first to see the fruit of our labor being heard and seen and now enacted into something real, and knowing that our senator is working for us and turning something real for us into a law."

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