Education Commons^™

A Primer On Higher Education, Student Aid, And The Federal Budget Process, Jenna Sablan, Robyn Hiestand

Journal of Student Financial Aid

While higher education scholars and financial aid practitioners are understandably concerned with the role of policy and finance, the relationship between student aid policy and the federal budget process deserves some attention and synthesis. In this article, we present an outline of the federal budget process and the ways in which it has been a vehicle for major student financial aid policy changes. We specifically describe the federal funding structure of Pell Grants and student loans and describe how the Congressional budget reconciliation process has resulted in recent policy changes in these programs.