From Inside Higher Ed:

As the House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee began a long day of deliberations over a massive restructuring of the student aid programs Tuesday, there was not a shred of doubt that the legislation at hand would ultimately pass (and it did). And more subtly — except when they were speaking privately, when they did not hold back — many college leaders said they had begun to feel as if the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats had engaged in a bait and switch operation. In originally proposing to end all lending through lender-based guaranteed loan program, in which a solid majority of colleges participate, the administration won the support of — or at least stifled opposition from — many higher education leaders by promising a “Pell Grant entitlement,” the holy grail for many student aid advocates.

But as the Obama proposal has morphed into House legislation (H.R. 3221), Democratic lawmakers would direct less than half of the money that could be generated by the legislation to increasing the Pell Grant, and tens of billions of dollars would go to purposes outside higher education, including early childhood learning and reducing the federal deficit.

Commentary

Of course it was a bait and switch, or more appropriately, it was Congressional lawmakers seeing dollar signs and doing what they will with the money. By the time the legislation exits the Senate and goes to the President’s desk, expect much of the “savings” and promises to have largely evaporated entirely.

By the time all is said and done, Congress will have dismantled a working federal student loan program and diverted the funding to whatever is the attention-getter of the day – not the students and families that were supposed to see increased aid and decreased tuition costs.

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