With only hours to go until a federal government shutdown occurs, many are wondering what will happen to services on which they rely. As current college students or as parents of current college students the following information is extremely important, especially if the shutdown becomes protracted.
Education Week’s Politics K-12 blog researched what would happen to the Department of Education. You can read the full post here, but below is the key section for current college students and their families:
“[The Department of Education] said today [4/7/2011] that although most student federal aid programs would not be impacted by a shutdown, colleges and universities would not be able to draw down and disburse to students any campus-based program awards, such as work-study or the Federal Perkins Loan Program. The impact on the $951 million work-study program would affect about 590,000 students in approximately 3,400 participating institutions. Perkins affects about 673,000 students in some 1,600 participating institutions.”
This is obviously bad news for students and their families.
(image by flickr user Daniel Zana)
If you’re very interested on how federal departments and services will be affected, the Washington Post has two great articles you should read. The first answers questions about avaiability of services and payments, while the other details agency-by-agency shutdown plan information.
