A much needed boost for America's students

By Editorial

After seeing college costs increase by almost 40 percent in the past five years, college and high school students in the U.S. finally have something to celebrate.

By redirecting funds that had previously been used as subsidies to private lenders, the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 constitutes the largest investment in higher education since the GI bill.

What this means is that instead of subsidizing loan firms who make large profits off of student loans with high interest rates, the government has decided to give the money back to the students in the form of need-based grants.

After withstanding a nine-month battle in congress, including numerous threats from the Bush Administration to veto the legislation, the bill was signed into law by President Bush on Thursday.

By increasing the maximum Pell Grant award, cutting interest rates in half on subsidized student loans over the next five years and introducing debt forgiveness for graduates who go into public service for 10 years, the act will make college more affordable for low-income and middle-class students.

More than anything, this act takes a step in a positive direction toward what should be a central tenet of American higher education: College can be affordable for all qualified students, regardless of economic standing.

The American concept of social mobility through access to education has been threatened in recent years by shrinking access to student aid in the form of grants and high-interest private loans becoming a growth industry.

Moreover, limited access to higher education doesn't just hurt the students who are unable to go to school; it hurts the nation economically, both at home and abroad. As innovation and technology grows in global markets, America cannot afford to lose its competitive advantage because some of its best minds couldn't afford higher education.

Here at Santa Clara, the bill is good news for the roughly 40 percent of students who receive need-based aid, in addition to the 1,175 students who will see the interest rates drop on their subsidized government loans.

Perhaps most importantly, the increase in federal student aid could help the university address one of the most pressing issues on this campus: The lack of socio-economic diversity in the student body.

While this bill will not be enough to cover all higher education costs for every student, it could be enough for some to make the difference between being able to afford college and having the dream slip through their fingers.

The GI bill gave families across America a chance to create a new future, a future filled with opportunities that previous generations could only have dreamed of.

Though the latest bill may not have quite the same capability, it comes from the same ideas of government that the GI bill came from -- that expanding the middle class through greater access to education will be beneficial to society as a whole; that government should be focused on enacting legislation that benefits all Americans, not just the wealthy elite; and that access to opportunities should always be based on merit, never on privilege.

It is these values that enable us all to chase the American dream, a dream that just became a little more real for a new generation of college students.