The federal government would no longer subsidize interest on federal loans, adding thousand of dollars to the cost of a college education. This will primarily affect low-income students.
The budget includes a proposal to simplify student loan repayment — this measure has bi-partisan appeal. Rather than choosing from a myriad of payment options, the proposal whittles those down to just one repayment plan, capping monthly payments at 12.5% of discretionary income. The balance for undergraduates would be forgiven after 15 years.
The public service loan forgiveness will be phased out. This program erases student loans after 10 years of employment for the government or a qualifying non-profit.
Medicaid cuts will also affect public schools
Special needs students along with millions of lower-income students receive services from vision screening to speech therapy from their public schools — this costs Medicare about $4 billion in reimbursements each year. To put that into perspective, that’s about 1% of all Medicaid dollars.
And, school choice
Title 1 is the largest K-12 federal education program, supporting high-poverty schools. The new budget flattens regular Title 1 funding and adds another $1 billion to a new grant program for states that allow low-income students to choose their public schools. The money that is allocated for them goes with them, essentially redistributing federal money from poorer schools and districts to wealthier ones.
$250 million will go for vouchers for private schools and $167 million for charter schools.
Other cuts come from a $2.3 billion program for teacher training and class-size reduction, a $1.2 billion after-school program, and a $190 million literacy program. Read more from the Washington Post:
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