Arnold Ventures Issues Statement on Senate HELP Reconciliation Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 11, 2025) — Kelly McManus, Vice President of Higher Education at Arnold Ventures, provided the following statement in response to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s release of reconciliation bill text: 

“We thank Chairman Cassidy and HELP Committee members for tackling critical challenges facing higher education. The Senate HELP reconciliation bill will improve value and return on investment for both students and taxpayers. It will create limits on graduate loans that ensure access to quality programs while restricting predatory pricing; simplify the loan repayment system and prevent a borrower’s loan balance from growing over time; and maintain protections for student borrowers, including the ⁹⁰⁄₁₀ rule.

“The bill also takes an important step toward building a more accountable system by including earnings thresholds, ensuring students are better off than they otherwise would have been if they hadn’t pursued higher education. However, the bill does not go far enough to address high-cost, low-value programs across all sectors and leaves important savings on the table. There are far too many programs where the students are loaded up with debt that they will never be able to pay off, and we need an accountability system that addresses that. As the bill moves toward the Senate floor, we look forward to working with the HELP Committee to strengthen this proposal by including a common-sense debt-to-earnings metric.

“We look forward to partnering with the Senate and House as bill text continues through the reconciliation process to ensure higher education delivers real outcomes for students, families, and taxpayers.”