Reflections on the Student Aid Improvement Act

Recently, Chairman Lamar Alexander of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee proposed adding additional higher education legislation to the House-passed FUTURE Act — an important bill providing continued funding for HBCUs and other MSIs — as it moves through the Senate. Last week, the Chairman introduced the legislative text of his proposal, the Student Aid Improvement Act, which contains several distinct postsecondary policy proposals.

In an ideal world, the proposals included in this bill would be solidified as part of a long overdue comprehensive Higher Education Act (HEA) reauthorization, not as additions to an important HBCU and MSI funding bill. However, Chairman Alexander noted that he and Ranking Member Murray have been working on a bipartisan HEA reauthorization for the last five years and have yet to reach an agreement on some critical issues.

Here’s the thing — we agree that there is some great stuff in this bill. But we also believe that it is not enough; it is not yet the package that today’s students deserve. Still, it is encouraging to see provisions addressing a truer scope of affordability issues that align with Higher Learning Advocates’ policy recommendations — a simplified FAFSA, an increased Income Protection Allowance for student parents, greater coordination between federal agencies, notification to students of their eligibility for programs like SNAP, and more.

But what happens once students get their consumer-friendly federal aid award letter and likely enroll part-time while working, parenting, and independent of a safety net? Will they be able to access on-campus child care? Can they afford to come back to school and try again if they’ve already tried before?

And what about the quality of the system they enter? Will their degree or credential help them earn enough in the workforce? Will their experiences and outcomes be the focus of higher education’s accountability system? Will they be better equipped to repay their loans and live a financially healthy life?

These questions are too important to delay the hard work of answering them. And to the credit of policymakers that have been carefully crafting and negotiating bipartisan proposals, that work is well underway. However, the Student Aid Improvement Act changes the language and substance of these existing bipartisan proposals, stripping away some of the provisions that made them bipartisan in the first place.

Let’s not miss the opportunity to negotiate the systemic shift needed in our higher education system. Rather than moving Chairman Alexander’s well-meaning approach, we urge Congress to expeditiously pass the FUTURE Act to ensure HBCU and other MSI funding stability. Then Congress should press ahead with work on a comprehensive higher education solution designed to provide today’s students a more affordable, equitable, and high-quality system of higher learning.