As the cost to attend college continues to spiral upward, President Barack Obama will announce Thursday a proposal to tie federal financial aid to a new college rating system and to limit how much students will need to pay each month for their student loans.  

Obama, who will make the announcement at a college in Buffalo, N.Y., will need Congressional approval for both initiatives, White House officials said during a conference call with reporters Thursday.

The rating system, which will be developed ahead of congressional approval to link it to financial aid, will look at affordability, access and graduation rates. Repayment schedules will be linked to income.

Want more information? Read the Fact Sheet from The White House here.

Avatar photo

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas

Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

Leave a comment