noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646
DURHAM — Across the nation, nearly one in 10 community college students cannot get a federal student loan, according to a new report.
The Project on Student Debt says in an issue brief that those students — particularly in the Southeast — are blocked from getting what “are almost always the safest, most affordable ways to borrow for college” because “their schools choose not to participate in the federal loan programs.”
But officials at Durham Tech — which stopped participating in the federal loan programs more than a decade ago — say that was the right move.
“The administration felt that our default rate [on federal student loans] was increasing at a rapid rate, which could have put Durham Tech in a position that could have been detrimental to our participation in other federal programs,” said Kay Jedlica, the school’s director of financial aid.
“Many other community colleges also began to drop participating in the loan programs starting around the same time,” for that reason, she said.
Since dropping out of the loan programs in 1997, Durham Tech has replaced them with an assortment of grant programs.
“Durham Tech offers all of the federal grant programs, as well as the North Carolina grant programs that are now available,” Jedlica said.
While loans — even from the federal government at advantageous borrowing rates — ultimately must be repaid, grants do not have to be. The most popular grant program, the Pell grant, provides need-based assistance to low-income undergraduates and certain postbaccalaureate students to promote access to postsecondary education.
Grant amounts are based primarily on the student’s expected family contribution and the cost of attendance.
Grants have been sufficient for students at Durham Tech, Jedlica explained, because of the low cost to attend.
“North Carolina has managed to keep tuition rates extremely low in comparison to other states,” she said. “A student who qualifies for the maximum Pell grant receives more than enough funding to cover tuition, books and [any remaining funding] goes directly to the student to cover such things as transportation costs.”
The report from the Project on Student Debt said that community college students without access to federal loans may have to turn to risky and more expensive private student loans or credit cards. In addition, they may have to cut back on classes, work long hours or leave school altogether.
That has not been the case at Durham Tech, Jedlica said.
