Push to renew federal student loan program

Joined by five local college presidents, Rep. Louise Slaughter on Wednesday urged Congress to renew a federal loan program that is more than 50 years old but is slated to expire at the end of September.

At eight colleges in the Rochester region alone, the Federal Perkins Loan Program helped 6,966 students in the 2013-14 school year, according to statistics compiled by the Democrat and Chronicle from the latest available federal data. These recipients were awarded $15.2 million in Perkins loans that school year.

Wednesday's news conference at the Federal Building in Rochester was also attended by financial aid officials from some of the local colleges as well as representatives from three financial aid organizations.

"It fills a critical gap," said Slaughter, D-Fairport, about this federal loan program that is designed to help those most in need.

Two of the college presidents at the news conference — Deana Porterfield of Roberts Wesleyan College and Gerard Rooney of St. John Fisher College — told how they benefited from Perkins loans when they were students.

"My dad had died when I was young and my brothers and I were not able to pursue a college education without the support that we received from the Perkins loan program," said Rooney.

At St. John Fisher, said Rooney, about a quarter of the student population are first-generation college students.

"It gives hope to students when they know that there is a funding source that is available to them when other funding sources might not be," he noted.

Nationally, 539,388 Perkins recipients received $1.2 billion, according to Slaughter's office.

Monroe Community College President Anne Kress said that MCC, like many other community colleges, does not participate in the Perkins program because its tuition is low enough that students don't need this type of loan. But she said that Perkins is nonetheless important to MCC students who transfer to four-year colleges with higher tuition.

Slaughter is sending a letter, signed by her and 94 other members of Congress, to Rep. John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota who is chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, and Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginian who is the ranking Democrat on that committee. The letter included the names of eight Republicans, seven of them from New York.

"Perkins is the nation's longest-running student loan program," says the letter. "Over the decades, the program has enabled millions of students from low-income families across the country to pursue a college education."

Authorization of Perkins loans expired a year ago but the legislation was renewed for a year. The extension ends Sept. 30.

Although students who now have been awarded Perkins loans won't lose that money, many won't be able to get new awards of Perkins money unless the program is reauthorized.

Colleges can receive an allotment for Perkins loans and decide who is most in need. Undergraduate recipients pay 5 percent interest, with the repayment beginning after they graduate.

But these loan repayments can be forgiven — canceled — if the recipient goes into such professions as law enforcement or works at a non-profit family services agency providing assistance to high-risk children and their families.

Undergraduates can receive a $5,500 annual loan under Perkins while graduate students can be awarded $8,000 per year.

Sarah Ackroyd said at Wednesday's news conference how Perkins has helped her pay for an education in which the average private college medical student graduates with about $190,000 in debt.

"We really appreciate how federal programs like the Perkins loan have helped us finance our education," said Ackroyd, 27, who grew up in Greece and will be graduating from UR's School of Medicine and Dentistry next spring.

The fight for renewal comes at a time that the Education and Workforce Committee is reviewing the financial aid system as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

Lauren Blair Aronson, spokeswoman for this congressional committee, said that the "current patchwork of federal student aid programs has become so confusing that it can discourage individuals from pursuing a higher education."

And she said: "Simplifying the financial aid system to better serve students and families continues to be a leading priority in our efforts to reauthorize the Higher Education Act."

Jonathan Burdick, dean of admissions and financial aid at UR, said that while the federal student loan system is unnecessarily complicated, reform should start with streamlining the forms that applicants must fill out, instead of dismantling a program such as Perkins.

The Perkins program, Burdick noted, is much smaller than the direct loan system that the Obama administration established to replace the costly system of private lenders making the loans and the federal government guaranteeing them.

Perkins, said Burdick, is cost-effective, with a college getting much of the money each year for making Perkins loans from the repayments made by earlier recipients of Perkins loans.

"It helps the highest-need students," said Burdick.

JGOODMAN@democratandchronicle.com

Reporters Sean Lahman in Rochester and Brian Tumulty in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.

Perkins loans by area colleges, 2013-14 school year

School Recipients Amount
Rochester Institute of Technology: 2,754 $7,696,259
University of Rochester 1,621 $3,443,528
The College at Brockport 736 $1,084,366
SUNY Geneseo 684 $1,029,886
Saint John Fisher College 510 $952,369
Roberts Wesleyan College 296 $375,200
Nazareth College 250 $307,824
Hobart and William Smith Colleges 115 $276,900
Totals 6,966 $15.2 million

Source: U.S. Department of Education