May 2, 2006

COHEAO’s leadership is continuing to respond to attacks on the Perkins Loan Program when they occur. The latest was an op-ed column last week in the Washington Times in Washington, DC (http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20060426-090412-2189r.htm) that used the old “PART” analysis to disparage the Perkins Loan Program. The newspaper published a response by COHEAO President Alisa Abadinsky this morning, which is included in this email.

If you see opportunities for either op-eds or letters to the editor in your local newspapers, please contact Joan Coyle at jcoyle@wpllc.net or 202-289-3910.

'F' is for faulty

In response to Carl DeMaio's Thursday Commentary column, "What our tax dollars pay for," Mr. DeMaio seems to be uninformed when it comes to the Perkins Loan program. His entire article is based on a faulty 2003 evaluation of which he quotes the misleading summary, apparently without reading the report.

It is wrong to state that the Federal Perkins Loan program is failing. To the millions of students who would be unable to cover books, tuition or other fees without their Perkins Loans, this program is an essential part of their financial aid without which they would be unable to stay in school.

Mr. DeMaio's comments are based on an inappropriate and unfair evaluation by the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). A careful reading of the 27 questions and answers that make up the Perkins Loan program evaluation reveals that the whole program is rated "ineffective" because it is measured the wrong way. At least 22 of the 27 questions have nothing to do with whether the program effectively helps students, only with bureaucratic reporting and self-evaluation mechanisms.

The Perkins Loan program is a federal-state-private partnership operated by colleges and universities that PART judges as if it were a federal credit program instead of a formula-grant program. As a result, OMB wants the Department of Education to change its procedures for analyzing the program.

That has not yet happened, so PART gives the Perkins Loan program an "I" for ineffective. Amazingly, calls for elimination of Perkins Loans are not based on findings of waste or fraud, but on bureaucratic infighting. The future of a program created in 1958 that funds 700,000 students a year should not be based on a one-word conclusion of a terribly flawed analysis.

ALISA ABADINSKY
President
Coalition of Higher Education
Assistance Organizations
Chicago

Andrew Stringer
Legislative Associate
Washington Partners, LLC
(P) 202-289-3903
(F) 202-371-0197
astringer@wpllc.net