Res 1042-2025

Whereas, Federal student financial aid programs have existed for decades to ensure that students, regardless of their socioeconomic background, have access to higher educational opportunities and are able to attend college in a more affordable way; and Whereas, For decades, the Pell Grant Program has served as a cornerstone of college affordability, helping generations of students from low-income backgrounds attend and graduate from college by helping to pay for tuition, fees, books, and other education-related expenses; and Whereas, Unlike student loans, Pell Grants do not need to be repaid, making them a valuable resource for students facing financial constraints; and Whereas, Across the country, Pell Grants support more than 7 million students annually, most of whom come from families earning less than $40,000 per year; and Whereas, In New York, roughly half of all CUNY and SUNY students rely on Pell Grants to finance their undergraduate education; and Whereas, Additionally, the federal student loan program was initially developed to provide broader access to college for those with limited resources; and Whereas, The Graduate PLUS loan program, one of the federal student loan programs, currently allows graduate and professional students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance; and Whereas, Across the country, 1.8 million borrowers have relied on Graduate PLUS loans to finance the cost of a graduate degree; and Whereas, On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed H.R.1, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" ("bill"), a sweeping reconciliation package which includes deep cuts to higher education funding and student aid; and Whereas, The bill includes $300 billion in cuts to federal education programs, including Pell Grants and federal student loan programs, which will raise costs for students and working families and accordingly limit access to higher education; and Whereas, The bill eliminates Pell Grant program eligibility for low-income students who are considered "high student aid index," which means they have other financial aid sources assisting with the cost of tuition, making higher education even more expensive for low-income families with the greatest need for assistance with education related-expenses; and Whereas, Reducing Pell Grant Program eligibility, as the bill does, will negatively impact New Yorkers' ability to afford and pursue higher educational opportunities; and Whereas, The bill eliminates the Graduate PLUS loan and caps borrowing for most graduate students at $100,000 and $200,000 for professional students in medical or law programs; and Whereas, By ending the Graduate PLUS loan program without comparable investments to ensure that graduate and professional students have more affordable degree pathways, students will have to find tens of thousands of dollars in alternate forms of credit; and Whereas, Sunsetting the Graduate PLUS loan program would expose New York students to the private market that generally offers less affordable and more risky options than federal loans; and Whereas, Private loans often have higher interest rates on average and stricter lending criteria, with lower interest rates potentially being available for more affluent students compared to those with greater financial need; and Whereas, According to the New York City Comptroller's 2025 report on Student Loans, at least 14 percent of adult residents in New York City have at least some student loan debt; Whereas, The bill creates different repayment options for current and future borrowers in an attempt to streamline the number of repayment plans and their terms by eliminating the existing income-driven repayment plans and creating a single new plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan; and Whereas, The Repayment Assistance Plan will increase monthly payments for borrowers by hundreds of dollars per month, or thousands of dollars per year, per an economic analysis conducted by the Student Borrower Protection Center; and Whereas, Particularly in the midst of an existing affordability crisis, many New Yorkers cannot afford to pay more on their student loan payments with nearly 1 in 4 student loan borrowers (23.7 percent) already behind on their student loans in the first quarter of 2025, according to the New York Federal Reserve; and Whereas, In addition to education cuts, the bill includes new and expanded taxes on college and university endowments, raising the top tax rate from a flat 1.4 percent rate to 8 percent for institutions with endowments exceeding $2 million per enrolled student for those that have more than 3,000 students; and Whereas, These tax changes are expected to significantly impact private and independent institutions in New York City, which rely on endowment revenue to fund scholarships, financial aid programs, faculty positions, research initiatives, and community outreach; and Whereas, NYC institutions likely to be affected by this provision include The Juilliard School, Cooper Union, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Columbia University; and Whereas, Because the tax rate increases on a graduated scale as the ratio of endowment assets per student increases, colleges and universities with fewer students and larger endowments would pay more in taxes when the bill is enacted; and Whereas, In 2024, data from the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments found that participating institutions used 48 percent of endowment to provide financial aid to students; and Whereas, New York City's prosperity, cultural vibrancy, and economic mobility are intrinsically linked to the strength of its higher education institutions, which serve over a million students annually and employ tens of thousands of city residents; and Whereas, Policies that dismantle student financial support systems, penalize institutions for serving economically vulnerable students, and reduce public investment in education undermine New York City's commitment to equitable opportunity and upward mobility; and Whereas, All students, regardless of income or background, deserve the right to pursue higher education without fear of financial ruin or systemic barriers; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York condemns the education provisions of H.R.1, the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," and calls on the federal government to restore the eligibility requirements for Pell Grants and protections for student loans, and undo the provisions that harm the financial security of colleges and universities, including minority-serving and under-resourced institutions. KS LS 20017 7/10/2025 4:22 PM