This is default featured slide 1 title
You can completely customize the featured slides from the theme theme options page. You can also easily hide the slider from certain part of your site like: categories, tags, archives etc. More »
This is default featured slide 2 title
You can completely customize the featured slides from the theme theme options page. You can also easily hide the slider from certain part of your site like: categories, tags, archives etc. More »
This is default featured slide 3 title
You can completely customize the featured slides from the theme theme options page. You can also easily hide the slider from certain part of your site like: categories, tags, archives etc. More »
This is default featured slide 4 title
You can completely customize the featured slides from the theme theme options page. You can also easily hide the slider from certain part of your site like: categories, tags, archives etc. More »
This is default featured slide 5 title
You can completely customize the featured slides from the theme theme options page. You can also easily hide the slider from certain part of your site like: categories, tags, archives etc. More »
Student Associations Lobby for Bill to Revamp Student Loans (Page 1 of 2)
Student governments and organizations at colleges and universities nationwide are pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that supporters say will make acquiring a higher education more accessible and affordable.
The legislative measure, known as the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), was passed by the House of Representatives on Sept. 17 in a vote of 253 to 171, largely along party lines. All but four Democrats voted for the bill, and only six Republicans also voted in favor. The bill is expected to be put to a vote on the Senate floor on Oct. 15.
The bill, if passed, would essentially mean an overhaul of the current college financial aid system, eliminating one of the two existing national programs that provides students and parents with federal college loans.
This landmark legislation would shut down the long-standing Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), which issues federally guaranteed student loans to borrowers via banks, state organizations, and other private lenders. The government currently pays these private FFELP lenders a subsidy for the federal parent and student loans these lenders issue.
Under the SAFRA bill, all federal student loans would be issued through the second national student loan program, the Federal Direct Student Loan Program, which issues federal college loans directly to borrowers through the U.S. Department of Education, with no third-party involvement from a bank or other FFELP lender and thus with no government subsidies being paid to a middleman.
SAFRA supporters, which include many college student organizations, say that ending government subsidies to third-party FFELP lenders to originate federal student loans will save taxpayers $87 billion over the next decade which means more funds available for federal college grants and other higher education initiatives.
“FFELP is expensive for the government,” Kathleen Templin, president of the Associated Students of Northern Arizona University, told the NAU online newspaper, JackCentral. “They give money to banks, which in turn gives money to students. But because banks charge interest rates, the government pays a lot of money for lenders to give money out” (“Student Aid Act Passes in U.S. House, Due for Senate,” JackCentral.com, Sept. 24, 2009).
In fact, SAFRA allocates $40 billion of the projected $87 billion in savings to expand the Federal Pell Grant program, which targets low-income students.
Students Applaud Expansion of Federal Pell Grants
Several student governments from across the country have joined forces with the United States Student Association (USSA), the main voice for students on Capitol Hill, to organize meetings with legislators to press the importance of financing higher education in building a better American work force.
“A lot of students are not able to go to school because of funding,” said Teresa Mabry, the chair for the Women of Color Caucus on the USSA board of directors. “If were not getting [our message] out there, its not going to work.”
The Truth about State Unclaimed Money
The unclaimed money menace has hardly left any state treasury untouched with an ever increasing influx of unclaimed money and in comparison, a very low number of claims being made. The logistic and bureaucratic mess created by the uncontrolled addition of unclaimed money has given a lot of headache to most of the state treasuries.
It is not surprising that the reimbursement of unclaimed funds has become the first priority for all the state treasuries. Facing these additional financial burdens in these times of economic slump is an unavoidable burden for most of the state governments. The center on Budget and Policy Priorities has been questioning states regarding the budget deficit and what are the plans to minimize it. It estimates that the combined state budget deficit over the next two and a half years is likely to be about $350 billion. This will account for about 20% of the state budget.
The state governments are at a complete loss as to how to manage the increasing pile of this government unclaimed money. More money is being added relentlessly every quarter and the trend continues to speed up with no signs of increasing claim. In order to tackle this unclaimed property menace, the states are forced to adopt new and out-of-the-box strategies in order to create a healthier and stable environment for its residents. Larger states, like California and New York, find themselves in a greater dilemma because of the increasing budget deficit on one hand and the surmounting volume of state unclaimed money on the other.
One of the common refrains of the state government is that there are so many welfare programs which are waiting to be implemented for the lack of funds while unclaimed property vault continues grow larger. Many of the law makers, in states like California and Delaware, have been proposing new ways of utilizing the state unclaimed money towards the social welfare and development projects. These states have taken the first proactive steps and have proposed the utilization of unclaimed funds effectively to fill in the budgetary deficits.
A consensus has emerged whereby the decision makers have agreed to implement the various welfare programs and other development projects without any delay in all the states. It is now universally agreed that while the money should be lawfully returned to the owner, in the absence of any body coming forward to claim it, it is prudent that these vast amount of unclaimed money is diverted toward the social development projects. It is increasingly seen that the decision makers are actively supporting the idea of unclaimed property auction. Apart from a few dissenting voices, this idea is getting a lot of support from everybody, including the citizens of the state.
In addition to the state unclaimed money, there is an equally large number of unclaimed properties that are waiting to be claimed. States like Delaware and California have started the public auction of unclaimed properties in the state, and this has contributed immensely towards the boosting of state economies resulting in the increase of state revenues by more than10%.