No surprises for higher education in White House budget

The White House budget released on 12 February won't be approved by Congress and likely won't even be seriously considered by lawmakers as a framework for their spending priorities. But the document makes clear that the Trump administration is in many respects on the same page with House Republicans as they seek to dramatically reshape the student aid system in renewing the Higher Education Act, writes Andrew Kreighbaum for Inside Higher Ed.

President Donald Trump's budget proposes consolidating multiple income-contingent repayment plans for student borrowers into a single plan, eliminating Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and ending subsidised student loans. It also would expand Pell Grant eligibility to short-term non-degree programmes, end the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and overhaul the Federal Work-Study Program.

Although there are some significant differences over details, those are all changes sought by the PROSPER Act, the Higher Education Act reauthorisation bill approved by the Republican-led House's education committee in December. Higher education and student advocate groups have criticised PROSPER as overly partisan legislation that would make college less accessible. They offered much the same take on the White House proposal last Monday.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site