By Amara Grautski
There may be good news on the horizon for students worried about how to finance their college education.
Following an increase in tuition across the country, and recent inconsistencies in the loan-lending business, Congress passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act July 31. The act aims to reform financial processes for students and their families.
The act passed in the House by a vote of 380 – 49 and in the Senate by a vote of 83 – 8. It will now go to the president for his signature, and President George W. Bush said he planned on signing, according to a press release from the House Education and Labor Committee.
“This legislation will empower America’s college consumers – students and families – by providing them with comprehensive information on tuition and textbook prices and key financial protections when paying for a college degree,” Rep. George Miller, chairman of the committee and one of the authors of the legislation, said in the release. “For students and parents, who continue to face soaring college costs amidst rough economic times, these reforms could not come soon enough.”
Miller also spoke highly of Sen. Edward Kennedy, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), for his “leadership and commitment to [the] bipartisan bill,” during his statement.
Kennedy, who spoke at Northeastern in March on the increasing cost of higher education, praised the act in a July 31 press release.
The legislation “[enacts] sweeping higher education reform that tackles skyrocketing costs, simplifies college aid, reins in abuses by lenders, helps the troops and gives intellectually disabled students a chance,” Kennedy said in a statement.
Rising College Costs
With tuition prices on the rise, the Higher Education Opportunity Act will work to combat unnecessary expenses for students and make them more aware of college pricing trends. According to Kennedy’s press release, part of the act requires the top five percent of colleges that have the greatest cost increases during a three year period for their sector to submit reports to the Secretary of Education on why there is an increase. The schools must also report what they’re doing to limit costs. This may force colleges with historically high tuition increases to be more accountable for their spending.
“Tuition, for one, is outrageously expensive,” said middler biology major Matt Devine. “We still pay about $23,000 a year [with financial aid], and every year it increases by like $3,000, and it’s just getting more and more difficult [to pay].”
Devine said what makes it worse is not knowing how his tuition money is spent.
Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President for Financial Affairs Jennifer Hardy said that this fall, SGA will survey students on what services they’d like to see brought to campus with their tuition dollars, and make them aware of how their funds are being used.
“If their priority is a lower tuition increase this year
