The Perkins Loan Program, America’s longest-running student loan program, expired last fall when Congress failed to reauthorize the program and UW System student representatives are calling for lawmakers to set aside partisan gridlock and fund the program.
In a release scheduled to come before a UW System Student Representatives meeting this Saturday, the body plans to discuss advocating for the Perkins Loans Program, according to UW Representatives press director Yogev Ben-Yitschak.
“It was a unanimous vote from all the schools that [focusing on the reauthorization of the Perkins Program] is something that we should do because it does deeply affect us,” Ben-Yitschak said.
UW Representatives plans to lobby for the reauthorization of the program at both the state and federal level as well as work on drafting op-eds on the issue.
“[The loss of the Perkins Loan Program] will take $25.4 million out of the pockets of UW-System students,” the release argues.
According to Ben-Yitschak, Wisconsin “definitely took the hardest hit” with the loss of the program.
A bill allowing for the reauthorization of the program has been introduced in Washington but has yet to leave committee, despite what the UW Reps’ release referred to as “broad bipartisan support.”
The Federal Perkins Loan Program was established in 1958 to provide higher education to a broader range of American students. Since then, the program has provided education for up to 400,000 students nationwide, including 13,672 students in Wisconsin, according to the release.
