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The report outlines measures intended to save taxpayers more than $265 billion over the next decade, including eliminating subsidized student loans, adjusting Public Service Loan Forgiveness, modifying repayment assistance, phasing out campus-based aid, repealing ineffective tax expenditures, and benchmarking research overhead rates.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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1 0 1 6 |\n\nFederal Budget Reform Opportunities in Higher Education for 2026  \nBy Andrew Gillen  \nEXECUTIVE SUMMARY  \nO  \nver the decades, federal programs have accumulated in higher education. Some of these programs have been rendered obsolete or redundant by subsequent developments,  \nwhile others have failed to achieve their intended purpose. As a result, there are several federal policy reforms that would improve higher education policy and save taxpayers  \nmoney. In this report I identify policies that would save more than $265 billion over the next 10 years, including eliminating subsidized loans, eliminating or capping Public Service Loan Forgiveness, modifying the Repayment Assistance Plan, phasing out campus-based aid, repealing ineffective tax expenditures, and benchmarking research overhead rates.  \nANDREW GILLEN is a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.  \nINTRODUCTION  \nThe federal government’s various higher education programs have evolved over the decades, sometimes in strange and unpredictable ways. The historical pattern is for some perceived need to justify the creation of a new program, which is layered upon the existing programs and then largely left unattended for decades. As a result, weare currently saddled with a plethora of higher education programs for which the original justifications no longer hold true, or else a program persists despite having been a failure. For example, one of the first large federal financial aid programs was the work-study program that subsidizes student jobs on campus. It was created during the Great Depression with the goal of shrinking the size of the labor force at a time of high unemployment.1 Mass unemployment is not a problem these days, yet the workstudy program still exists today.  \n“We are currently saddled with a plethora of higher education programs for which the original justifications no longer hold true, or else a program persists despite having been a failure.”  \nThe only silver lining is that it is possible to find reforms that both improve higher education policy and save taxpayer money. These policy reforms are concentrated in student lending, campus-based aid, tax expenditures, and research overhead reimbursement.  \nThe One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 Provides a Guide  \nLast year’s reconciliation bill was the most substantial higher education legislation in decades. The bill made major changes to student loans, Pell Grants, and even the university endowment tax. Notable successes include eliminating GradPLUS loans, capping ParentPLUS loans, phasing out many of the overly generous incomedriven repayment plans, allowing colleges to limit their students’borrowing, and introducing an earnings-based  \naccountability measure. These reforms were desirable in their own right, but notably, they also contributed to $320 billion in savings.2 The 2025 bill provides a guide to implementing substantial changes that yield both better policy and budgetary savings.  \n2 0 2 6 REFORM OPPORTUNITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION  \nWith the possibility of another reconciliation bill being passed this year, we’ve compiled a host of reforms that both improve policy and save substantial money for taxpayers.  \nStudent Loans  \nKey opportunities for reforming federal student loans include eliminating subsidized loans, reforming Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and amending the soon-to-be launched Repayment Assistance Plan.  \nEliminate Subsidized Student Loans  \nWhile all types of student loans are subsidized in the sense that taxpayers fund them, the type of loan that is formally called “subsidized”waives interest charges while the student is still enrolled in college. Most undergraduates can currently borrow $3,500 (for freshmen); $4,500 (for sophomores); and $5,500 (for juniors and seniors) per year in subsidized loans, and another $2,000 in unsubsidized loan","cbCainrCPe8CYqTV","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainrCPe8CYqTV","pdf",642768,12,"English","# Executive Summary\n# Introduction\n# 2026 Reform Opportunities in Higher Education\n## Student Loans\n## Eliminate Subsidized Student Loans\n## Reform Public Service Loan Forgiveness\n## Modify the Repayment Assistance Plan\n## Campus-Based Aid and Tax Expenditures","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the report identify in current federal higher education programs?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that many federal programs have become obsolete, redundant, or ineffective, often because new programs were layered without being properly monitored for decades.\"},{\"question\":\"Which reforms does the report prioritize to improve policy and reduce costs?\",\"answer\":\"It focuses on student lending, campus-based aid, tax expenditures, and research overhead reimbursement, including eliminating subsidized loans and changing Public Service Loan Forgiveness.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the report claim eliminating subsidized student loans could help?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that subsidized loans are interest-free during enrollment, which undermines the value of money over time, and it also contends they may not materially influence enrollment decisions because many students do not accurately understand loan details.\"}]","Federal Budget Reform Opportunities in Higher Education for 2026 | PDF",1792046523]