Celebrating the new launch of a nationwide financial aid contest sponsored by Viacom, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Vice President of MTV Public Affairs Jason Rzepka and President of the College Board Gaston Caperton spoke to student journalists Monday about reframing the way the nation approaches financing education.
The contest encourages students to submit ideas to develop digital tools to make finding financial aid resources simpler as a part of MTV’s Get Schooled College Affordability Challenge, Rzepka said. The winner of the contest will receive $10,000 and see his or her idea developed by MTV and the College Board during the next several years.
“We want them to harness the power of technology and to reimagine the financial aid process,” Rzepka said.
In light of the contest, Duncan discussed what the federal government is doing to remove barriers to education.
On Pell Grants:
“We are committed to doing everything we can to help students pay for college through some pretty significant breakthroughs. Because of investments (President Barack Obama) has made in the Pell Grant program, an additional 2.4 million low-income students are receiving these grants to help them pay for college.”
“At the same time, the average grant has gone up by about $1,000. We’ll continue to invest in Pell Grants over the next decade and to ensure that all eligible students can receive the award. The law will increase the maximum grant to $5,550 in the current academic year and that will go up to $6,000 per grant by 2017. We did all of this huge, massive investment in Pell Grants without going back to the taxpayers for a nickel. We’ve simply stopped subsidizing the banks.”
On Loan Repayment:
“As a part of the bill that was passed, there’s also something called income-based repayment. This is hugely important. Once you graduate from college this reduces your loan repayment to 15 percent of your income and after 10 years of public service, becoming a teacher or a governmental official, working at a nonprofit or as a police officer or something like that, after 10 years of public service, any debt you have still remaining will be erased, will be forgiven.”
On the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA:
“But we also know that there are other barriers to college affordability and access and one of those is the financial aid form itself, the FAFSA form. The form was far too long, far too confusing, especially for students that may be first generation going to college or English language learners. The form itself was an impediment, a barrier to going to college. It was absolutely crazy.”
“Hopefully, you’ve noticed this year we made the FAFSA form significantly shorter, simpler and more user friendly. We eliminated questions, made it easier to import data to deliver responses faster. We think this will significantly remove the biggest barriers for students going on to college.”
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “MTV Challenge eases financial aid process ” on social media.
