2010 Legislative Agenda

The Minnesota Private College Council supports continued in investment in the State Grant program — need-based financial aid that helps make higher education possible for one out of four college students.

The State Grant program provides our state with the educated workforce needed to propel future economic growth by:

1. Awarding need-based aid to more than 84,000 college students
2. Targeting assistance to low- and middle-income families
3. Keeping higher education accessible
4. Preserving student choice 

According to the projection from the Office of Higher Education, the State Grant program was due to experience a $42 million deficit this biennium, which ends June 2011. Thousands of students were slated to lose their grants and those who kept them would see the value shrink by an estimated 18.5%.

See our request below; here's what happened: Policymakers take steps on State Grant; gap remains.

Policy request: Protect aid for low- and middle-income students

Low- and middle-income college students need policymakers to protect the State Grant program. Ideally the state would fill the program deficit and prevent harmful cuts to State Grant awards. But if policymakers cannot fill the State Grant deficit — given the state’s overall $1.2 billion deficit — the Minnesota Legislature should take these steps:

1. Ensure that only one-time cuts are made; avoiding permanent changes will allow the program to return to its current size and scope in future years, as additional federal and state resources become available.
2. Reduce the State Grant deficit, softening its impact on all students. This can be done by delaying recent program enhancements (such as the summer transition grants and the ninth semester funding) and by retaining the program’s existing federal funding that may otherwise be diverted.
3. Protect low- and middle-income students from any additional cuts to the State Grant program, beyond what is already called for in state law. We cannot afford to balance the state’s $1.2 billion deficit on the backs of low- and middle-income students

• Sign up for the Legislative Action Network
• State Grant program benefits
• State Grant program background
• State Grant program key facts
• Dec. 2008 community forum
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