WASHINGTON DC (April 12, 2019) — In March, Senator Charles "Chuck" Grassley was joined by Sens Tina Smith of Minnesota and Joni Ernst of Iowa in introducing the Net Price Calculator Improvement Act, the Understanding the True Cost of College Act, and the Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act to help students better understand the cost of college. Since the introduction of the three bills, multiple education-groups have endorsed the bills.
"uAspire, a national nonprofit providing students with financial aid counseling, offered student-centered input on and supports several provisions of these bills, including the requirements for standardized financial-aid terms, mandatory-content and formatting, and measures to improve the transparency of costs," uAspire executives said.
“We thank Sens Grassley, Smith, and Ernst, and Representatives [Elijah] Cummings and [Brett] Guthrie for advancing the common-sense solutions offered in these bills. Enacting these reforms is long overdue, and we look forward to working to ensure that these improvements are included in any reauthorization of the Higher Education Act," Lindsay Ahlman, senior policy analyst at the Institute for college Access and Success, said.
“EFC strongly endorses the Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act and its common-sense reforms to student-loan counseling-requirements,” Debra Chromy, president of the Education Finance Council, said.
“The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) strongly supports the Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act,” David Hawkins, NACAC’s Executive Director for Educational Content and Policy, said. “This is an important piece of legislation that will help students, and their families, understand the true cost of a post-secondary degree. We urge Congress to pass this legislation quickly.”
“The way in which colleges and universities communicate price and financial-aid makes it exceedingly difficult for students and families to make financially-informed college-decisions. Improving how we communicate financial-aid offers is a no-brainer and the solutions are low-hanging fruit. The Understanding the True Cost of College Act takes the necessary steps to require standardized financial-aid offers so students can easily compare them, while also standardizing terms and definitions on all financial-aid communications from colleges and universities. Students and families have a right to have clear and comparable information about how much college will cost, what they can expect to receive in aid, and what they may have to borrow to cover remaining costs,” Rachel Fishman, Deputy Director for Research, Education Policy Program, for New America, said.
Sen Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has also endorsed the Understanding the True Cost of College Act and the Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act as part of a list of bipartisan bills he is looking to include in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
