Dive Brief:

• When Congress failed to extend the Perkins Loan program earlier this month, it set 1,700 college and university partners up to eventually return billions in federal grants.
• The Democrat and Chronicle reports that if Congress doesn’t find another way to renew the program, participating colleges and universities will have to return the revolving door of loan funding that kept the program running, even without renewed federal investment.
• Since 2005, the Perkins Loan program has continued on college and university campuses from their own investments and income from former students repaying their loans.

Dive Insight:

While representatives in the House voted to approve a one-year extension to the Perkins Loan program, senators never had a chance to do the same. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) blocked the proposal from making it out of the education committee, which he chairs. The program could still be renewed if the legislature includes it in the federal government’s next budget bill, which needs to be passed before Dec. 11 to keep the government running. Alexander would prefer to let the program die and overhaul the government’s entire financial aid strategy through reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. But that could take awhile.