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Sen. Casey calls Perkins Loan extension ‘a good compromise’

By J.D. Prose jprose@calkins.Com 2 min read
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Almost 40,000 college students in Pennsylvania can breathe a sigh of relief now that it seems the Perkins Loan program, which expired earlier this year, will be extended for two years, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said Thursday.

“This is a compromise, and it’s a good compromise,” Casey, D-Scranton, told reporters in a conference call.

Casey also acknowledged that congressional lawmakers “have a lot of work to do to make sure the Perkins Loan program gets reauthorized” permanently.

The Senate approved the measure Wednesday in a voice vote, and it now goes to the House.

“I would not expect it to be derailed over there,” Casey said.

Perkins loans are fixed-rated loans based on student need. The current interest rate is 5 percent.

Casey said the legislation extends the program for undergraduates, and those who have not received Perkins loans before, to Sept. 30, 2017. Current graduate students in the program gain another year to Sept. 30, 2016.

The extension legislation eliminates the eligibility for new graduate students and those who currently do not have Perkins loans. Expressing concerns about the limitations on graduate students, Casey said he wants to address that difference so that those students “have the same opportunities” as undergraduates.

Casey’s office said the extension also requires that schools exhaust a Perkins borrower’s eligibility for subsidized Direct Loans before awarding a Perkins loan, explaining that subsidized loans do not accrue interest while a student is in school while unsubsidized loans do accrue interest.

Robert Pangborn, vice president and dean for undergraduate education at Penn State University, joined Casey on the call to say that “without this extension, many future and current Penn State students would have faced uncertainty.”

According to figures provided by Casey’s office, Penn State has 3,070 Perkins Loan recipients receiving nearly $7.6 million in assistance. Pangborn said the program was an “integral part” of many students’ financial packages, especially freshman who constitute one-third of Perkins recipients.

As for other regional schools and students benefiting from the Perkins program, Geneva College has 323 recipients ($365,700 in loans), Robert Morris University has 99 recipients ($185,500 in loans), Indiana University of Pennsylvania has 1,326 recipients ($1.37 million in loans) and the University of Pittsburgh has 2,765 recipients ($3.6 million in loans).

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