1. United States
2. Minn.
3. Letter

Please vote against the devastating House Education Committee bill, misleadingly titled “student success and taxpayer savings plan”. I am a higher education professional with a PhD who has spent 25 years working on initiatives, programs, scholarships, and policies to increase equitable student access and success in college. This proposed bill, although it aims to address Pell Grants in a potentially helpful way, does so by limiting Pell eligibility, eliminating subsidized loans, ending PLUS loans, and eliminating or restricting forbearance and deferment options. In addition, this bill would essentially label low-income students as “risks” to institutions, punishing those colleges and universities whose missions are to serve students who have been historically excluded from higher education. What our country needs is a concerted reinvestment in our colleges and universities, not vehicles to continue this Republican administration’s assault on learning and schools. We need to protect and defend not-for-profit institutions with strengthened federal and state funding.