Grassley’s Work to Make College More Affordable for Iowa Students
- To help make college more affordable, Senator Grassley has worked to pass and enact tax provisions to provide relief and assistance to college students, including enhancing 529 tax-free college savings plans, authoring the college tuition deduction for college expenses and authoring the student loan interest deduction.
- Senator Grassley introduced the Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act to strengthen loan counseling provided to students so they know how much payments will be compared to likely future salaries and so they consider all options for reducing borrowing.
- While refinancing federal student loans is already an option, Senator Grassley supports expanding the pool of lenders to compete for student borrowers by letting non-profit lenders use tax-exempt bonds to refinance student loans, for example.
Grassley Supports Local Control of Education
- State content standards should be decided at the state level, not by Congress or unelected federal officials. Senator Grassley led the fight for a legislative prohibition on the U.S. Department of Education spending any further funds to advance Common Core or pressuring states in any way related to Common Core standards or assessments. Federal initiatives from the 2009 stimulus bill resulted in pressure on states to adopt Common Core. Prohibitions Senator Grassley worked to see enacted send a message to states that they need no longer fear federal repercussions for exercising their constitutional prerogative to set academic content standards.