A prominent higher education policy organization is urging Congress to take sweeping action to address college affordability, student loan burdens, and institutional accountability — warning that recent federal legislation has left millions of students worse off.
The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), a nonpartisan research and advocacy organization that has worked on student-centered higher education policy for more than two decades, released its 2026 Federal Policy Agenda in February, outlining a broad set of recommendations aimed at making college accessible and affordable for all students regardless of financial background.
The agenda arrives in the wake of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), enacted in 2025, which TICAS says fundamentally reshaped federal higher education policy in ways that disproportionately harm low- and moderate-income students. The organization warns that the law’s changes to student loan repayment, college accountability, and public benefit programs “will reverberate far beyond the higher education system,” making it increasingly difficult for students outside the wealthiest households to earn a postsecondary credential.
Central to TICAS’s agenda is shoring up the Pell Grant program, which serves more than seven million students annually. Despite bipartisan support, the grant’s purchasing power has eroded dramatically — today’s maximum award covers just 24% of the average cost of attending a four-year public college, compared to more than three-quarters of that cost at the program’s peak in 1975-76. The Congressional Budget Office projected in February 2026 that the program still faces a funding gap of $5.4 billion for fiscal year 2026, which could grow to nearly $11.5 billion by FY 2027. TICAS is calling on Congress to at least double the maximum award and transition the program to mandatory funding to eliminate the recurring risk of shortfall.
On student loan repayment, TICAS raises alarm about what it calls a looming “default cliff.” The OBBBA replaced existing income-based repayment plans with a new Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) for borrowers taking out loans on or after July 1, 2026 — a plan TICAS argues raises monthly payments for most borrowers, disproportionately burdens lower-income individuals, and extends maximum repayment terms to 30 years. Federal data from October 2025 showed more than 5.5 million borrowers already in default, with another 3.7 million on the edge. TICAS is urging lawmakers to revise repayment formulas, restore bankruptcy protections for student borrowers, and end the taxation of discharged student debt.
The agenda also takes aim at predatory institutions. TICAS documents a pattern of high-cost, low-quality programs — concentrated but not exclusive to the for-profit sector — that leave students, particularly Black and Latino students and those from low-income communities, buried in debt with little economic return. The organization is pushing for passage of the bipartisan PROTECT Students Act and mandatory debt-to-earnings standards that would restrict federal aid from flowing to programs whose graduates cannot afford to repay what they borrowed.
Beyond tuition and loans, TICAS emphasizes that basic needs are inseparable from college affordability. Roughly 23% of students experience food insecurity, and 35% of all enrolled students report considering stopping out because they cannot afford to pay their bills. The group is calling on Congress to simplify eligibility for programs like SNAP and expand childcare support for student parents.
Finally, TICAS flags a transparency crisis in how colleges communicate financial aid. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report cited in the agenda, 91% of colleges either omit or understate the actual net price students will pay in their aid offers. TICAS is backing the bipartisan Understanding the True Cost of College Act, which would require standardized, transparent financial aid disclosures.
Taken together, TICAS’s agenda reflects a sense of urgency from advocates who believe the federal policy shifts of the past year have moved the needle in the wrong direction. With the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce projecting that 72% of U.S. jobs will require postsecondary education or training by 2031, the stakes for getting higher education policy right are, as TICAS sees it, nothing less than the country’s economic future.
