Bill Nelson: “I rise today to support the extension of the Higher Education Act. However, I would like to raise two issues. First, I…”

“I rise today to support the extension of the Higher Education Act. However, I would like to raise two issues. First, I would have preferred a clean extension of this act as the other extensions have been. Second, I am concerned about the impact this extension will have on the many other graduate students nationwide who rely on financial assistance, including students at Florida's Nova Southeastern University. Nova Southeastern University's student body is unique with eighty percent pursuing graduate studies. This is the opposite of typical institutions where 80 percent of students are at the undergraduate level. Nova holds the distinction of leading the Nation in postgraduate degrees awarded to Hispanic students. Nova is also the largest originator of School as Lender loans in the country, and thus, is disproportionately affected by changes to the School as Lender Program. The School as Lender Program allowed Nova to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in low-cost loans to students. Premiums from the sale of those loans provided the university with millions of dollars annually which it used to educate its students. Nova maintains it helped keep their tuition rates down. Denying Nova its ability to use these premiums for all students will hurt thousands of Nova students each year. This extension also eliminates the ability of school lenders and eligible lender trustees to issue low-cost PLUS loans to graduate students.”