Cecilia Munoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, said about 5 million current and former students will benefit from the president signing a memo Monday afternoon to reduce student debt.
Ms. Munoz said the administration is working with companies like H&R Block to make sure students know the provisions to help ease the burden of educational debt are available.
“This is part of a package of things the president has been engaged in for multiple years now to make sure we are both driving down the cost of college and helping students pay off their debt,” she said Monday on MSNBC.
She said helping out students with their college debt is actually good for the government too, because it means fewer will default on their loans.
The ultimate goal for the administration is to establish a rating system of which colleges provide the most value per dollar and then provide more federal dollars to the highest-ranked schools by graduating students on time and allowing students to get good jobs.
“The goal is to establish a rating system, which is a challenging thing to do, but then tie federal aid to what the ratings show to provide more value,” she said. “We should provide those resources to the places that are really delivering results.”
• Jacqueline Klimas can be reached at jklimas@washingtontimes.com.
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