This hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions focuses on reauthorizing the Higher Education Act through improving college affordability. The following committee members presented opening statements: (1) Honorable Lamar Alexander, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and (2) Honorable Patty…

In this perspectives brief, authors James Kvaal and Jessica Thompson explore the challenge of college affordability and summarize the campaign proposals to address it. Driven by steadily rising college costs and student debt, the 2020 presidential campaign has put the issues of college costs and student debt on the agenda as never before. Many…

This study examines the impact of Illinois Promise, a loan replacement grant for low-income students, on college graduation within five years. A quasi-experimental design using propensity score matching is employed for first-time, full-time students enrolled as freshman from fall, 2007 through fall, 2009. Eligibility criteria are used to construct…

Student loan borrowing for higher education has emerged as a top policy concern. Policy makers at the institutional, state, and federal levels have pursued a variety of strategies to inform students about loan origination processes and how much a student has cumulatively borrowed, and to provide students with greater access to loan counseling. We…

Two-generation (2Gen) programs and policies create opportunities that allow adults and the children in their lives to build on each other's successes. Ensuring that both parents and children have access to affordable, high-quality educational opportunities, for example, is a core component of a 2Gen approach. Investments in the postsecondary…

What influences college student borrowing? In a field experiment with a large community college, we send emails about federal student loans to students who have received information about financial aid but have not made a borrowing decision. A treatment reminding students that they need not borrow the maximum amount of available loan aid does not…

This report describes outcomes of 2015-16 bachelor's degree recipients 1 year after graduation. Outcomes include time to degree, amount borrowed for undergraduate education, postbaccalaureate enrollment, employment status, earnings and job characteristics, and steps taken toward a career in teaching. These findings are based on data from the first…

As the price of college continues to rise and students find themselves deeper in debt, Americans are clamoring for ways to reduce their out-of-pocket college costs and debt. Some lawmakers have proposed removing the cost of college tuition as a solution. However, this brief argues three points: (1) U.S. policymakers should be wary of countries…

Every year, the BC Student Outcomes Program collects feedback from former students who took post-secondary programs. Student feedback is essential to maintain quality and relevance in the education system. In 2022, over 28,500 former students were surveyed; key results from those surveys are presented in this report. 90% of the former…

College has never been so necessary or so expensive for Americans. Rising costs, state disinvestment, declining household incomes, and grant aid that has not kept pace lead more students to borrow, and borrow more, to go to school. While federal student loans are the safest option for students who need to borrow, rising student loan debt has…

This brochure provides details about types of federal student aid, federal student aid eligibility requirements, other types of financial aid and sources for additional funding, and key points to consider when taking out a student loan.

Deregulation of for-profit colleges led to a precipitous rise in enrollments from 1990 to 2010. Since 2010, regulation, investigations, and sanctions have led to enrollment declines in for-profit postsecondary institutions. Initially barred from receiving Title IV federal funds, in the form of Pell Grants and Stafford Loans, for-profit colleges…

Nearly 43 million college student borrowers across the United States owe more than $1.56 trillion in outstanding federal student loans. The number of student borrowers in the country has increased by 1.3 million, or 3.1 percent, over the past five years, while the amount of outstanding student debt in the country has increased by a whopping $…

The Public Health Service Act (PHSA, 42 U.S.C. §§201 et. seq.) authorizes five student loan programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): (1) Health Professions Student Loans; (2) Loans for Disadvantaged Students; (3) Primary Care Loans; (4) Nursing…

Since 1997, education tax benefits have become an increasingly important component of federal higher education policy. For the 2019 and 2020 tax years, 12 tax benefits are available for college students and their parents to help pay for higher education. In 2025, absent legislative action, this number will increase to 13: two provisions which are…