President Obama Signs New Education Reform Act

Image Via CBS.com
On March 30, 2010 at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College, President Obama signed into effect the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. This act was “two major victories that will improve the lives of our people for generations to come,” said President Obama.
This education act will save taxpayers almost $70 billion by removing banks’ abilities to act as middlemen in the student loan process. Instead, this money will be moved into the Pell Grant program to help fund community colleges and colleges that have been historically black colleges.
Starting in 2014, this act will also decrease the amount of money that students are required to repay at 10 percent of their discretionary income.
Hopefully, this will make it easier for students to pay for college, because they will not be paying “billions of dollars to banks to act as unnecessary middlemen in administering student loans.”
Instead, “we’re redirecting money that was poorly spent to make sure that we’re making investments in our future,” said the President.
President Obama hopes this will help meet his long-term educational goal of making American graduates more competitive in the global market by 2020. Vice President Joe Biden agrees.
“I am pleased to say that the reforms in this bill will make a huge difference to those Americans who need it most,” Biden said.
Via the Washington Post
Also Read:
New Student Loan Reform Will Improve Student Funding
President Obama passed the historical Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act. Not only does this bill seriously alter access to health care, but it also significantly improves the way students can fund their post-secondary education.
Minority and Community Colleges Helped by Education Reform Act
A big part of this act will be to increase funding to America’s Historically Black Colleges and Minority-Serving Institutions. Almost 60 percent of the nation’s 4.7 million minority students attend these schools; however, these schools have not received any addition funding to help offset expenses.
Salllie Mae Discouraged Over New Education Reform Act
Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student loan lender, believes the new act will lead to company job cuts. Sallie Mae is estimating that one-third of its 8,500 positions will be lost. And Tennessee Republican senator Lamar Alexandar is echoing those concerns. He projects the act will result in over 30,000 job losses nationwide.