VivirLatino

In a move that looks sure to help out Latinas struggling to get through university, the House has ok’ed a bill that makes more positive changes to government sponsored financial aid since the 1960s.

The House has voted in favor of the biggest overhaul of college aid programs since their creation in the 1960s — a bill to oust private lenders from the student loan business and put the government in charge.

Thursday’s vote was 253-171 in favor of a bill that fulfills an array of President Barack Obama’s campaign promises, ending subsidies for private lenders, boosting Pell Grants for needy students and paying for community college reforms, among other things.

I’m not a huge fan of Pell Grants–when I was in school, I found that the more money you got through Pell Grants, the more school tuition was raised. I think caps on the cost of university in conjunction with Pell Grants would be more beneficial to students.

At the same time, however, I can’t tell you how pleased I am that private companies would no longer have control over student loans. As a teacher who saw many of her poorer students being forced into private loans out of desperation (i.e. a crisis during the middle of semester), I know that private loans target those who need the money most but are some of the most marginalized and under protected (think: homeloan crisis we’re now in).

What I would really *rather* see over anything in this bill, however, is the ability for students to declare bankruptcy returned. As much as it sucks for homeowners to have to declare bankruptcy and lose their houses–at the very least, they know once the deed is done, their economic burdens are considerably lightened. Students do not get that–they are forced to take out a type of loan that is the ONLY type of loan in the U.S. that can not be dismissed in bankruptcy. Which effectively means that no matter how bad things get, no matter what hospital bills you rack up or what jobs you lose or how life messes with you–your school loans are going to be there with you.

It’s not clear yet if this legislation will also pass the Senate. If it does, it looks as if Obama will sign it (I got this article off of Obama update on twitter!), which is good. But there’s still a long way to go–too many U.S. citizens are working there way into permanent debt simply because they wanted an education.