Cutting graduate student loans included in lawmakers' plans to pay for Gulf storm relief
The history-making storm, Katrina, may have an impact on history graduate students who rely on subsidized federal loans. A Republican Party subcommitee's proposed plan to finance the relief costs of the storm-wrecked Gulf region includes a provision eliminating all federally subsidized loans to graduate students across the nation according to a copy of the proposal released by the Democratic political action committee MoveON.org .
Entitled "Operation Offset," the plan estimates that $8.6 billion could be saved over ten years if it were put into effect. According to the proposal, "Graduate students make an informed decision to invest in their own futures and should bare the costs of schooling, especially since private interest rates are currently low." In the 2003–04 academic year, 40 percent of all graduate and first-professional students received financial aid through the federal Stafford loan program (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005158.pdf).
Entitled "Operation Offset," the plan estimates that $8.6 billion could be saved over ten years if it were put into effect. According to the proposal, "Graduate students make an informed decision to invest in their own futures and should bare the costs of schooling, especially since private interest rates are currently low." In the 2003–04 academic year, 40 percent of all graduate and first-professional students received financial aid through the federal Stafford loan program (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005158.pdf).