Higher Education Project

Current Campaigns

Affordable Textbooks

Students spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks—20 percent of tuition at an average university and half of tuition at a community college. Textbook prices have increased at four times the rate of inflation since 1994, and continue to rise. Read more.

Student Debt

Higher education in America continues to be critical for both individual success and the economic and political health of our country. While college attendance has grown over the past two decades, state and federal aid has failed to keep pace with the rising cost of higher education. As a result, more students than ever must rely on student loans to pay for a four-year degree and start their post-collegiate lives with significant debt. Read more.

Cutting Lender Subsidies

The federal government invests billions of dollars a year in the federal student loan programs. Unfortunately much of this money goes to excessively subsidize private lenders. Congress should lower subsidies to banks and use the money to make college more affordable. Read more.

Overview

American colleges and universities play a pivotal role in training the nation’s citizens, leaders, innovators, public servants and educators. In the past decade, government support for higher education has declined; as a result, tuition and fees have increased. Grants have failed to keep pace. As costs continue to swell, students are taking on more and more debt to pay for their degrees.

We support access to higher education through increased need-based financial aid and streamlined federal student aid programs. We should increase the affordability of a college education by controlling the rise in student debt, by making loans more affordable and by cutting special-interest subsidies in the student loan programs.

Students from across the country meet with Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), chair of the Health and Education committee, following his committee's vote, 17 - 3, in support of the Higher Education Act of 2007.