Welch promotes financial aid proposal

By Tim Johnson

Free Press Staff Writer

Congress appears poised to substantially increase federal financial aid for college students, a prospective boon for Vermont families struggling to pay for higher education.

In a news conference at the University of Vermont on Monday, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., touted the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, passed by the House last month, as providing $18 billion in financial aid over the next five years. Pell grants for lower-income students would be increased (the maximum of $4,050 in 2006 would rise to $5,200 in 2011), and interest rates on need-based student loans would be cut in half, from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent.

Flanked by Vermont higher education administrators and two students, Welch said the legislation would benefit more than 10,000 Vermont students by providing about $44 million in financial aid, with an average savings of $4,370.

The Senate passed its own version, the Higher Education Access Act of 2007, this summer. A conference committee will address the differences in the two bills, and Welch said he expects final legislation to be approved in the fall. He said he hoped the legislation would ease the burden on Vermont parents who have come to regard college as increasingly unaffordable.

Anticipated congressional action would be "a historic milestone of investment in our nation's students," UVM President Dan Fogel said.

Jane Sanders and David Finney, presidents of Burlington College and Champlain College, respectively, pointed out that their institutions have large shares of nontraditional students -- including students who cycle in and out of college in part because of high costs. Increased aid would be an important boost for those students, they said. Sanders said 75 percent of Burlington College's 207 students receive financial aid, but that the average amount of aid, $12,416, compares with an annual cost of attending of about $21,000. The legislation, she said, would make a "huge difference."

"These students are the majority of today's undergraduates," Sanders said of students who juggle work and family obligations. "A college education is no longer a gradual entry from your parents' home into the wider world," she said. "It is something that has to be fitted into the rest of life."

Finney said financial aid was the second largest expense small private colleges have, after payroll, and that the House bill would "ease some of the pressure."

The House legislation would be an important boost for students in the Vermont State College system, said Karen Wilks, senior vice president. Of about 12,000 students in the five institutions, Wilks said, more than 85 percent receive financial aid, and about 35 percent are eligible for Pell grants.

Improved aid that helps keep more Vermont students in Vermont educational institutions would help mitigate the state's brain-drain problem, said Ty Handy, president of Vermont Technical College. He said research shows that "if a student stays in a Vermont college, they stay here after graduation."

The House bill would also put a lid on federal student debt, provide tuition assistance for students who agree to teach in public schools, and furnish incentives for colleges to keep costs down, Welch said.