Spring Break
House passes college tuition bill
Legislation would increase financial aid
Ryan Dostalek
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: News
Candidates for the presidential nomination have been touring the country for months touting their plans for how they are going to change the country if they win the election in November.
During recent stops in Wisconsin that included UW-Eau Claire, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have focused their campaigns on their plans for higher education and college affordability, among other issues.
In the meantime, Congress has already started working on reforming some of those issues, particularly higher education and college affordability.
The House of Representatives passed legislation on the issue Feb. 7. The College Opportunity and Affordability Act amends and reauthorizes the Higher Education Act of 1965 passed and signed by then-President Lyndon Johnson.
"It's a nice package of reforms," said U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse.) Kind was one of 354 representatives in the House who voted to pass the measure along to the Senate.
Congress introduced the bill into the House in early November 2007. If passed and signed by President Bush, the bill would extend the Higher Education Act until 2013, implement programs to reform and increase financial aid, as well as cap tuition hikes and improve education opportunities for low-income and veteran students.
Kind said Congress had just finished with an overall higher education bill just before the winter recess, which tackled questions of rising textbook costs and financial aid issues. This current bill is a supplement to the one passed in the fall, he said.
One of the main topics in the recent bill that was "paramount" to Kind was the reforms on financial aid, he said.
If the bill makes it through the Senate and the president signs it, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form would see drastic changes by becoming a one-page document, rather than the multi-page form it currently is. Reforming the application process for financial aid was a topic both Democratic presidential candidates pressed on during their stops in Eau Claire. Both Chelsea Clinton, speaking on behalf of her mother, and Obama said they plan to change the FAFSA form into checking a box on tax forms.
During recent stops in Wisconsin that included UW-Eau Claire, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have focused their campaigns on their plans for higher education and college affordability, among other issues.
In the meantime, Congress has already started working on reforming some of those issues, particularly higher education and college affordability.
The House of Representatives passed legislation on the issue Feb. 7. The College Opportunity and Affordability Act amends and reauthorizes the Higher Education Act of 1965 passed and signed by then-President Lyndon Johnson.
"It's a nice package of reforms," said U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse.) Kind was one of 354 representatives in the House who voted to pass the measure along to the Senate.
Congress introduced the bill into the House in early November 2007. If passed and signed by President Bush, the bill would extend the Higher Education Act until 2013, implement programs to reform and increase financial aid, as well as cap tuition hikes and improve education opportunities for low-income and veteran students.
Kind said Congress had just finished with an overall higher education bill just before the winter recess, which tackled questions of rising textbook costs and financial aid issues. This current bill is a supplement to the one passed in the fall, he said.
One of the main topics in the recent bill that was "paramount" to Kind was the reforms on financial aid, he said.
If the bill makes it through the Senate and the president signs it, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form would see drastic changes by becoming a one-page document, rather than the multi-page form it currently is. Reforming the application process for financial aid was a topic both Democratic presidential candidates pressed on during their stops in Eau Claire. Both Chelsea Clinton, speaking on behalf of her mother, and Obama said they plan to change the FAFSA form into checking a box on tax forms.
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