Higher Ed Policy Roundup: Vol. 7 - Issue 6

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding the two challenges to the Biden-Harris Administration’s student loan forgiveness plan. Recall that the challenges come from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that issued a temporary block of the forgiveness plan and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals which upheld a ruling from a federal judge in Texas that the debt relief program was unconstitutional. The oral arguments focused on whether the challengers had standing to bring the cases and the statutory basis the Administration used for the student loan forgiveness plan. It is expected that the Supreme Court will publish its final ruling in June.

According to an analysis of zip codes, approximately 8.6 million student loan forgiveness applications came from majority non-white areas.

Education Secretary Cardona criticizes rankings at a conference hosted by Harvard Law School and Yale Law School.

The following bill(s) have been recently introduced for consideration by the 118th Congress (2023-2024):

H.R. 1125 – Student Transparency for Understanding Decisions in Education Net Terms (STUDENT) Act [Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA-4)] would require disclosure of the total amount of interest that would be paid over the life of a loan for certain federal student loans.

S. 531 – Net Price Calculator Improvement Act [Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN)] would expand students' access to net price calculators that estimate the cost of higher education and offer financial aid figures.

S. 530 – Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act [Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN)] would make loan counseling an annual requirement before new loans are disbursed and allow students to decide exactly how much they would like to borrow.

S. 528 – Understanding the True Cost of College Act [Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN)] would create a universal financial aid offer form and standardize terms used to describe financial aid to allow students to more easily compare financial aid packages between schools.