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Purdue president tells Congress student loans need to be more need-based

By Stan Jastrzebski | Published on in Uncategorized

Purdue University President and former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joined a conservative-leaning panel today to speak with a joint congressional committee about mounting student loan debt. This year’s Gallup-Purdue Index found that the average student loan debt for a recent college graduate is $35,000.

Daniels has criticized both the national debt and the amount of loans many students take out. He says too much money is going to students without financial need and he’d like to see more need-based Perkins loans become available.

Daniels told the committee of a plan he wants to institute at Purdue called “income share agreements.” That’s a deal where an individual investor pays for a student’s college up front, in exchange for some percentage of that student’s earnings for several years after they graduate. But Virginia Democratic Congressman Don Beyer wondered if investors in the program wouldn’t also give preference to students who show signs of material wealth.