March 14, 2022
After prolonged negotiations, Congress passed a long-awaited bipartisan agreement last week to fund the government through the remainder of fiscal year 2022.
This funding bill makes crucial investments in #RealCollege students and provides badly-needed resources to address the growing crises of student basic needs insecurity and college affordability,” said Bryce McKibben, Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy for the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. “At a time when 3 in 5 students do not have enough to eat or a safe place to live, Congress delivered badly-needed resources to help students and families who have too often been denied or shut out of federal programs that should be there to help them succeed.”
On the heels of the recent announcement by the U.S Department of Education to provide additional pandemic relief funding to address students’ basic needs, the government funding bill passed this week includes several wins and steps forward for the #RealCollege movement. In particular, we are excited to see progress on some of our longtime priorities, including expanded student financial aid, funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities(TCUs), and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), more funding for campus child care and basic needs grants, flexibility for colleges’ pandemic relief funding, and a deal to allow many of the financial aid reforms in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Simplification Act to move forward in 2023.
So, we present a list of the provisions within the spending package that we believe will add much-needed support for #RealCollege students.
Read our announcement below to learn about the Top 8 #RealCollege Wins in the FY22.