By Vivian Garcia, Chronicle Staff Writer
Policies now have the opportunity to be improved and established to help Americans in need with the shift of a new Presidency.
The Biden Administration has prioritized supporting Americans after the devastating effects of the pandemic and plans to create legislation to financially assist college students.
The $1.9 Trillion Covid relief package is expected to present funds to support stimulus checks including adult dependents who were excluded from the previous two. President Biden has expressed concern for college students and has taken steps to create a difference.
How have the early actions of President Biden impacted college students?
College students were among millions left out of the two previous stimulus checks but are set to receive funds through the American Rescue plan that has not been finalized by Congress. The House has passed the budget resolution and although there has been push back tools like budget reconciliation allow bills like these to be passed smoothly.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) became a law on March 27, 2020, which temporarily suspended payments for federally owned student loans, stopped default loan collections, and halted loan payments with 0% interest. The law consistently was renewed throughout 2020 and was extended on President Biden’s first day with an executive order through Sept. 30, 2021.
President Biden has also advocated canceling $10,000 federal loan debt per student and although it is not included in the relief package it has the potential to gain support from members of Congress in the coming months.
The Director of Financial Aid, Korey Lindley, at Cypress College, says how “It would be great that it would wipe out a ton of debt for students that have $10,000 or less so that would be great in regards to getting rid of that burden” when speaking about the potential policy.
Lindley also said how “Reformatting the public service loan forgiveness” that is currently in place with flaws would be beneficial to college students with student loan debt because of the difficulty of approval from the government.
Community College has shown to be a much more financially safer route when seeking a higher education due to the accumulation of debt and Lindley offers advice for students regarding student loan debt.
Lindley states, “If I was a student that needed a student loan, usually the federal student loans are better in regards to interest rates that they will get from private lenders so students should be very aware of the interest rates they will be offered before taking out a private student loan”.
Today there are many programs offered to students seeking higher education and legislation to continue to support in the coming months for students is very valuable.
