Susan Dynarski will testify in front of the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee (HELP) hearing “Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Financial Aid Simplification and Transparency.” The hearing will be livestreamed on January 18 at 10:00 a.m. with live viewing parties at the Ford School and School of Education.
- Watch the full committee hearing.
- Read Susan Dynarski's written testimony.
- Read the Michigan News release, "Simplifying higher ed financial aid: U-Michigan professor to testify before Congress."
Dynarski’s testimony will focus on the U.S. student loan market, current student loan policy, and improvements geared at making borrowing work for students. These include insights from research Dynarski has conducted with Nicholas Barr, Bruce Chapman, and Lorraine Dearden from their report "Getting Student Financing Right in the U.S.: Lessons from Australia and England,” which suggests that the U.S. could reduce student loan default by moving from the current repayment system, based on mortgage-style fixed repayments, to a well-designed and run income-contingent loan program.
The report is a product of an international comparative conference that Dynarski convened in Washington, DC in June 2016: “Restructuring student loans: Lessons from abroad.” The conference provided policymakers, analysts and press with cross-national perspectives on student debt and repayment to enrich the U.S. conversation around student loans with perspectives on how other countries structure aid, borrowing, and repayment.
For a primer on Dynarski’s student loan research:
- “America can fix its student loan crisis. Just ask Australia.” July 9, 2016 New York Times The Upshot.
- “The dividing line between haves and have-nots in homeownership: Education, not student debt.” May 4, 2016. Brookings Evidence Speaks.
- “How to - and how not to - manage student debt.” May 2, 2016. Milken Institute Review.
- “What does cutting rates on student loans do?” April 14, 2016. Brookings Evidence Speaks.
- “New data gives clearer picture of student debt.” September 10, 2015. New York Times The Upshot.
- “The rise of student debt for those who get degrees.” June 16, 2015. New York Times The Upshot.
- “Student loans and defaults: The facts.” June 11, 2015 New York Times The Upshot.
- “We’re frighteningly in the dark about student debt.” March 20, 2015. New York Times Economic View.
- “Loans for educational opportunity: Making borrowing work for today’s students.” 2013. Policy brief with Daniel Kreisman. Brookings Hamilton Project.
Dynarski joins several witnesses at the hearing, including Dr. Matthew Chingos, director of the Education Policy Program at the Urban Institute; Ms. Joanna Darcus, Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation Racial Justice Fellow at the National Consumer Law Center; Ms. Laura Keane, chief policy officer at UAspire; and Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, president of Amarillo College.
--Story by Julie Monteiro de Castro, Education Policy Initiative administrator.