Dive Brief:

• The proposed reauthorization of the Higher Education Act includes amendments to change the federal financial aid structure, making it easier to pay for college, but experts say they don’t do enough, The Shreveport Times reports.
• Proposed reauthorization legislation by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA, would increase state funding of public universities, support community colleges and foster more college-credit programs available to high school students.
• Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed three reauthorization bills. One of them, the Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act, requires more loan counseling of students by colleges and universities.

Dive Insight:

This will be the 10th reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965, and the first time since student loan debt passed the $1 trillion mark. Statistics from the Project on Student Debt show that 70% of the students who graduated last year had college loan debt. The average debt per student: $29,400. Other proposed amendments to the reauthorization would offer lower monthly payments on college loan debt for students with the biggest hardships, allow bankruptcy discharge of private loans, set up income-based repayment, make student loan debt collection less punitive, and streamline financial aid applications to two questions, about income and household size.