| | | | |  | | By Michael Stratford | Presented by Sallie Mae® | SENATE DEMS PRESS BIDEN TO EXPAND STUDENT DEBT RELIEF FOR PARENTS: President Joe Biden's sweeping student loan relief program provides extra benefits for tens of millions of borrowers who received a Pell grant — which administration officials have touted as a way to target the benefits toward the neediest families. — But the additional $10,000 of relief for Pell recipients (up to $20,000 in total) won't apply to many parents who took out federal loans to help their children pay for college. — A group of Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), this morning is making a new push to get the White House to reconsider that policy. They're urging the administration to expand student debt relief for more Parent PLUS borrowers whose children received Pell grants. — These parent borrowers "demonstrated significant financial need at the time they borrowed the PLUS loan, as evidenced by the fact that their students qualified for Pell Grants based on family income," the Senate Democrats wrote in a letter to Biden that was provided to POLITICO. "Like student borrowers who received Pell Grants, these borrowers also face numerous barriers to successful repayment and should receive relief. "
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Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is leading an effort by some Senate Democrats to urge the Biden administration to expand its student debt relief program to cover more parent borrowers whose children received Pell grants. | Francis Chung/E&E News | — The letter was signed by Van Hollen and fellow Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Bob Menendez (N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Tina Smith (Minn.), and Brian Schatz (Hawaii). — A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the letter. — The Education Department says that it will determine eligibility for the debt relief program based on the parent borrower's situation — not the status of the child for whom they took out the loans. Parent PLUS borrowers, according to the department, will qualify for the higher, $20,000 amount of debt relief only if they themselves received a Pell grant for their own studies. Otherwise, those parent borrowers will be eligible for the $10,000 of relief — provided that they meet the program's income limits of $125,000 for individuals or $250,000 for couples. — Roughly 3.6 million borrowers owe Parent PLUS loans, which totaled more than $107 billion at the end of March, according to federal data. Civil rights groups and other advocacy groups lobbied heavily for the Biden administration to include parent borrowers in its loan forgiveness program in the first place, citing the disproportionate impact the debt has on Black and Latino families. — The Senate Democrats' letter cites a Century Foundation analysis which found that large portions of the children of Parent PLUS borrowers received Pell grants, including 80 percent of Parent PLUS borrowers at HBCUs. — Beyond the Biden administration's one-time student debt cancellation, the Democrats also urged the White House to expand its other student loan forgiveness programs to include Parent PLUS borrowers. While praising the administration's "historic efforts to address the past failures of the federal student loan programs," the lawmakers said they "remain concerned that in some of these actions Parent PLUS borrowers have been left out." — In particular, the Senate Democrats urged the Biden administration to allow Parent PLUS borrowers to take advantage of its temporary expansion of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (set to expire at the end of October). They also urged the administration to include parent borrowers in the upcoming expansion of income-driven repayment programs. IT'S MONDAY, SEPT. 12. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. Please send tips and feedback to your host at mstratford@politico.com or to my colleagues: Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com and Bianca Quilantan at bquilantan@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: Every student's journey to and through higher education is unique, and our goal at Sallie Mae is to power confidence on the path to college completion. That means providing free resources to help families make responsible choices before they even consider borrowing, like access to millions of scholarships and tools to understand college costs. That's why Sallie Mae makes sense. | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories.
| | | CALIFORNIA LEADERS VOW TO ELIMINATE ANY STATE TAX ON BIDEN'S LOAN RELIEF: The leaders of California's legislature said on Friday that they would make sure that the nation's most populous state does not tax the federal student loan debt forgiven under the Biden administration's relief program. — Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, both Democrats, said in a joint statement: "Once the federal government finalizes details of the student debt relief program, we will know whether the relief is tax exempt under current California law. If not, we will make the relief tax exempt through immediate action in early 2023. Rest assured, one way or another, California will not tax the federal student debt relief." — Biden's student loan relief won't be taxable at the federal level. The American Rescue Plan Act exempts any student loan forgiveness from counting as federal taxable income through 2025. — Most states are set to follow suit and won't tax the forgiven debt. But the state tax situation for loan forgiveness is murkier in a handful of others. Officials in Indiana, Mississippi and North Carolina, for example, have said publicly they plan to impose state taxes on borrowers who receive loan forgiveness. Other states have said they're reviewing the issue, and it's possible state legislatures could change their laws.
| | | | HAPPENING 9/29 - POLITICO'S AI & TECH SUMMIT : Technology is constantly evolving and so are the politics and policies shaping and regulating it. Join POLITICO for the 2022 AI & Tech summit to get an insider look at the pressing policy and political issues shaping tech, and how Washington interacts with the tech sector. The summit will bring together lawmakers, federal regulators, tech executives, tech policy experts and consumer advocates to dig into the intersection of tech, politics, regulation and innovation, and identify opportunities, risks and challenges ahead. REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT HERE. | | | | | | | | FLOTUS AND CARDONA KICK OFF BACK-TO-SCHOOL TOUR: First lady Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona today are launching a back-to-school bus tour through a handful of states this week to promote the Biden administration's education agenda. — This morning, Biden and Cardona will visit a school in Knox County, Tenn., before visiting the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. — This afternoon, Biden and Cardona will travel to Greensboro, N.C., to visit North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University's College of Education. Cardona will then head to Guilford Technical Community College. —Later this week, Cardona and other top Education Department officials will hold events in Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
| | | | A message from Sallie Mae®:   | | | | | | FBI HOLDS BOMB THREAT BRIEFING WITH HBCU LEADERS: Federal law enforcement held a call Friday with leaders of historically Black colleges after advocates pressed for an update on the investigation into the bomb threats made to their campuses earlier this year. — Federal law enforcement officials "discussed the progress made in this investigation, which cannot be shared publicly due to sensitive aspects of the investigation," the FBI said in a statement following the call led by the FBI's Counterterrorism Division and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. — The bureau also acknowledged that the threats are still ongoing. In August, Howard University received two bomb threats within the same week. "As the new school year gets underway, threats to these institutions continue, and the FBI remains committed to investigating and analyzing each one to identify the perpetrator and determine the threat's credibility," the FBI said. Bianca has more here.
| | | SUPREME COURT WILL HEAR FROM BIDEN ADMIN IN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CASE: The Supreme Court on Friday approved the Biden administration's request to present oral arguments in the anti-affirmative action challenges against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. — The high court will hear oral arguments in two cases on Oct. 31 that aim to ban colleges and universities from considering race in their admissions processes, according to the docket. Bianca has more here.
| | | | Join POLITICO Live on Tuesday, Sept. 20 to dive into how federal regulators, members of Congress, and the White House are seeking to write the rules on digital currencies, including stablecoins. The panel will also cover the tax implications of crypto, which could be an impediment to broader adoption and the geopolitical factors that the U.S. is considering as it begins to draw regulatory frameworks for crypto. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | — In Hasidic enclaves, failing private schools flush with public money: The New York Times. — An ex-professor spreads election myths across the U.S., one town at a time: The Washington Post. — Rep. Katie Porter's university housing deal draws scrutiny: The Associated Press. — Three months after the tragedy in Uvalde, this is how these families are coping: NPR.
| | A message from Sallie Mae®: At Sallie Mae, we believe in transparency and helping families make informed decisions about financing their higher education. While most families expect to borrow, their first steps should be looking for scholarships and grants and completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Unfortunately, three-quarters of families are unaware the FAFSA is available beginning in October and many skip it altogether because they don't think they'd qualify. Families are also confused about what is in financial aid packages and even what type of money – like federal student loans – needs to be repaid. We need to continue to educate and inform college-going families on these critically important topics. That's why Sallie Mae makes sense. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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