Hoosier State Today

Amid escalating student debt across the United States, U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) have reintroduced the Student Protection and Success Act. This bipartisan legislation aims to address the growing student debt crisis by increasing higher education institutions' accountability for their students' ability to repay loans and requiring these institutions to have a vested interest in their students' success.

“Our Student Protection and Success Act will help ensure colleges and universities are preparing hard-working students for meaningful careers that will better enable graduates to repay their student loans,” said Senator Young.

“The skyrocketing cost of college – and subsequent student debt – has become a barrier for too many young people who want to pursue higher education to achieve their career and life goals,” said Senator Shaheen. “By increasing accountability measures for loan repayments, institutions of higher education have to keep their promises to borrowers and empower graduates to succeed after graduation. This bipartisan bill will help address the alarmingly high cost of higher education and better ensure college affordability for the long-term for our students.”

The Student Protection and Success Act proposes several measures to hold higher education institutions accountable by requiring them to share responsibility for student success. The bill would remove federal student loan eligibility from colleges and universities where less than 15 percent of their students can begin repaying their loans within three years of graduating or leaving school. Additionally, it would require schools to pay a "risk-sharing fee" based on the total loan volume their students cannot repay. The Department of Education would then allocate those funds to support schools that better assist low-income students.

According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, student loan debt has more than doubled in the past two decades, yet there has been little recent bipartisan collaboration on addressing long-term affordability. The Student Protection and Success Act seeks to protect both borrowers and taxpayers by incentivizing colleges and universities to ensure students can repay the loans they take out.