When you are a student, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. How many hours will you take? Where will you stay? Are you going to be able to sign up for the right classes? And most importantly, how will you pay for school? There are several ways to pay for education, but because of certain circumstances, many students have to take out student loans. Student loans are a big deal. But with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, students need not feel like they are signing their life away when making the big decision to take out student loans.

Haven’t heard about this yet? Not many have. But ETSU student Heidi Davis is very familiar with this reform. On Monday, she spoke at Centennial Hall on this issue and helped students understand the benefits of this act a little better.

The act will lower monthly payments on your student loans and it will shorten the debt forgiveness timeline, said Davis. Also, starting immediately, new borrowers will be able to cap their monthly loan payments at just 15 percent. This act will eliminate the middle man when taking out loans. It will end subsidies to banks which, in turn, will save both the taxpayer and the recipient money. And starting July 1, all federal student lending will be converted to the Direct Loan program, a program that promises stability, effectiveness and cost-efficiency.

Benefits not only apply to student loans but to the Pell Grant scholarship as well. This reform immediately increases the maximum amount for Pell Grant to $5,550 and is planning to increase even more in the near future. Starting in 2013, Pell Grants will be linked to match the rising cost-of-living by indexing it to the Consumer Price Index.

“The Healthcare Reform Act is by no means perfect, it is however a step in the right direction and combined with the Education Reconciliation Act, is going to go a long way towards making education and health care available to all students,” said Davis.

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