Victory for Historically Black Colleges and Universities as US Education Department reconsiders policy change on Parent PLUS Loans

The U.S. Education Department, yielding to pressure from historically black colleges (HBCUs) and members of Congress, said Wednesday that it would reconsider recent changes to the standards it uses to award Parent PLUS loans.

In a letter seen by reporters, the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, Democrat of Ohio, that his agency would review its definition of “adverse credit” in rule-making sessions planned for next spring.

In the meantime, he said, the department is taking steps to make it easier for parents who were initially denied a PLUS loan to receive one on appeal. Under the new policy, more families with minor blights on their credit histories will be approved for loans.

In the letter, Duncan said that 95 percent of students whose parents were initially denied a PLUS loan to enroll in a historically black college had enrolled in the 2012-2013 award year, many with the help of a larger Stafford loan. Still, almost 20 percent of them ended up at different institution that was not historically black.

Read more: The Chronicle