With the recent expiration this month of the Perkins Loan Program, the goals of post-secondary education have been taken off the table for future college-seeking students with low incomes, U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI), a co-sponsor of the bill, said recently.
“The students who count on a Perkins loan to help pay for their college education shouldn’t be left high and dry,” Bishop, a member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said.
In addition to making higher education accessible for low-income students, the program served as an incentive for people to go into public service by offering targeted loan cancellations for specific progression in areas of national need, including teaching, nursing and law enforcement.
Specifically, the Perkins Loan Program would have been extended through Fiscal Year 2016 under the Higher Education Extension Act of 2015 (H.R. 3594), which Bishop and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced on Sept. 24.
H.R. 3594 would have allowed participating colleges and universities to continue serving new borrowers through Perkins, while also instituting reforms to the program to ensure the legislation would be fully paid for at no additional cost to taxpayers.
Though the House passed the bill shortly after its introduction, the Senate decided not to pursue it, a decision that Bishop said “deeply disappointed” him.
“Congress should be making it easier, not harder, for students to make their college goals a reality,” Bishop said.
“Why the Senate did not take it up is a question for the Senate,” a spokeswoman for Bishop told Ripon Advance. “The House did its part to ensure students could get the support they need while Congress continues its work on higher-education reauthorization.”
As far as the effects of its expiration, students who currently are enrolled in the Perkins Loan Program may keep their financial aid until September 2020, as long as they do not transfer schools or change majors. Moving forward, new students will not have access to these low-interest, need-based loans.
Bishop’s office also said the House will continue efforts to strengthen higher education based on a number of principles, including simplifying and improving an over-complicated financial aid system.