Bush Proposes Hurricane-Relief Package That Would Help Displaced Students and the Colleges That Have Taken Them In

By STEPHEN BURD

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The Bush administration will ask Congress for $227-million to help students and colleges affected by Hurricane Katrina, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced this afternoon.

The bulk of the money would allow borrowers affected by the hurricane to defer payments on their student loans and would provide aid to colleges that have taken in students displaced by the storm.

The proposal would not, however, include funds to help Gulf Coast colleges to repair or replace facilities and equipment, or to encourage students to return to those institutions once they reopen, as college lobbyists have urged (The Chronicle, September 14).

Higher-education lobbyists, particularly those at private colleges, were livid that their requests for direct aid to damaged institutions, as well as incentives for students to re-enroll, had gone unheeded.

"It's outrageous," said Sarah A. Flanagan, vice president for government relations at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "They've done nothing to help colleges in the Gulf Coast to survive."

"Private colleges are among the largest employers in New Orleans," she said. "If you don't have a vision for the future of higher education in the gulf, you have no vision for the economic future of the region."

Lobbyists for private colleges were particularly upset about the lack of money for repairs and reconstruction because current law prevents them from receiving funds for those purposes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Under a change made in 2000, private nonprofit groups can receive funds from the agency for emergency response and cleanup, but they must apply to the Small Business Administration for loans to cover the repair and replacement of permanent structures.

Public colleges face no such restrictions, and private colleges fear that the small-business funds will not meet their needs.

Advocates for private colleges are asking Congress to restore their eligibility for assistance from FEMA. But the Bush administration does not appear to have proposed such a change.

The Bush administration's plan, as described by Secretary Spellings, would:

• Allow borrowers affected by the hurricane to defer payments on their student loans for up to six months without being charged interest or incurring penalties.

• Provide $1,000 payments to colleges for each student they take in who has been displaced by the storm. The funds would be intended to help colleges meet the unexpected costs associated with educating those students.

• Permit colleges that have temporarily ceased operating as a result of the hurricane to retain student aid they have already received for the new academic year.

• Relieve students enrolled in colleges that have temporarily closed of any obligation to repay federal financial aid they have received for the current term.

• Authorize the education secretary, on a case-by-case basis, to quickly waive or modify certain provisions of federal education laws to provide assistance to students, school districts, colleges, universities, and states affected by the hurricane. The waivers may be used to extend program-reporting deadlines and to allow states, school districts, and colleges to use funds more broadly to help displaced students.

Members of the Senate's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee introduced a hurricane-relief bill that included provisions to help students and colleges late Thursday evening. Few details about what appears in the legislation were available on Friday afternoon. However, college lobbyists said they did not believe that the bill included money for repairs or funds to lure students back to Gulf Coast colleges.

Kelly Field contributed to this article.