Parents to Congress: Protect the American Dream, Keep College Affordable for the Middle Class

The House Education and Workforce reconciliation language represents the most sweeping overhaul of federal financial aid since 2008, and for millions of middle-class families, it is nothing short of a gut punch. At the National Parents Union, we are sounding the alarm: this bill will make it harder, not easier, for everyday families to afford college and unlock the opportunities that define the American Dream.

The plan would have the following impact on families: 

• Harder to Afford College: Cuts to Pell Grant eligibility would restrict aid for working students, undermining low-income students’ ability to cover tuition and stay enrolled.

• More Expensive Student Loans: Eliminating interest subsidies would drive up the cost of borrowing for low- and middle-income families, forcing them into deeper debt.

• Punishing Struggling Borrowers: New repayment rules would increase monthly payments for the lowest-income borrowers, extend repayment terms to 30 years, and eliminate hardship protections- pushing many toward default.

• Fewer Protections Against Predatory Schools: By weakening or removing accountability measures, the package would expose students, especially veterans, to predatory  practices and worthless degrees.

• Blocking Paths to Advancement: Ending Graduate PLUS loans would shut out students from graduate education unless they take on risky private loans, undermining aspirations for upward mobility.

• Caps the lifetime borrowing limit at $200,000- including both student and parent loans- regardless of program or need. The undergraduate cap would be $50,000 – making an undergraduate degree at many universities across the country inaccessible for low income and middle income students. These limits fail to account for families with multiple children or higher-cost programs like nursing, education, or STEM fields.

• Ties annual loan limits to the median cost of a program of study, punishing students who attend higher-quality or more expensive institutions, even if those programs offer higher long-term returns.

• Shifts to a single income-based repayment plan that extends loan repayment up to 30 years—locking families into decades of debt and delaying homeownership, entrepreneurship, and savings for the next generation.

A System That Works Against Students, Not For Them

This bill replaces a financial aid system that, while imperfect, offers multiple paths to affordability with a rigid structure that limits choice and places institutional risk above student opportunity. It weakens Loan Forgiveness, cuts off flexible repayment options, and punishes non-completers without offering the support students need to finish their degrees.

Middle-Class Families Will Be Squeezed the Hardest

The working- and middle-class families we represent aren’t asking for handouts, they’re asking for fairness. These are the parents who make just too much to qualify for Pell grants but not enough to write a tuition check. Under this bill, they’ll face new barriers to financing their child’s education and fewer repayment protections once loans come due.

Undermining the American Dream

At its core, this bill tells students from middle-income families that their dreams are too expensive. That a college degree, long seen as the gateway to opportunity, is now a luxury for the few, not a right for the many. That’s not just bad policy, it’s a betrayal of the values this country was built on.

We urge Congress to reject this short-sighted, inequitable plan and return to the table with solutions that support student success, protect families, and preserve the promise of higher education as a ladder to economic mobility.

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARENTS UNION
With more than 1,800 affiliated parent organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, the National Parents Union is the united, independent voice of modern American families. We channel the power of parents into powerful policies that improve the lives of children, families and communities across the United States. https://nationalparentsunion.org/