According
to President Bush's 2007 budget request to congress, some college
loan providers will no longer be able to provide students with low
interest loans.
According to a press release from the Coalition of Higher Education
Assistance Organization, if enacted into law, this budget proposal
would take away loans from half a million students each year.
The 2007 budget request would do this by eliminating funding for the
low-cost Perkins Loan program. The Department of Education's 2006
budget appropriation terminated funding for five programs, according
to the White House.
The 2007 Budget builds on this by proposing to terminate an additional
42 programs. This is including many that the Program Assessment Rating
Tool, PART, has shown to be ineffective or unable to demonstrate results.
According to the budget, these terminations will save $3.5 billion.
Most of the money will be redirected towards priority programs such
as: Title I, High School Reform, School Choice, the Teacher Incentive
Fund and programs that make up the Administration's Competitiveness
Initiative.
According to COHEAO, the administration's rational for eliminating
the Perkins Loans is based on the PART, which claims the program is
both duplicate and redundant to other loan programs.
The Perkins Loan Program was launched in 1958 by the National Defense
Education Act. The program has provided $25.7 billion to 25 million
students from federal contributions.
