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The United States Congress has finally begun to implement the first Higher Education Act overhaul since the expiration of the previous version over five years ago.

In this impressive effort to make education a priority, the new laws will increase accessibility of higher education for low-income students by making Pell grants available year-round.

It will also increase the transparency of colleges’ relationships with lenders and textbook vendors.

In addition, a new two-page Free Application for Federal Student Aid has been created to simplify the financial aid process, as opposed to the original seven-page version.

This is an important development, especially when families are now hiring professionals to aid them in navigating the financial aid process.

The new law would also require textbook companies to show full pricing information and sell unbundled textbook packages. With increasing textbook prices, the law would ensure that students are not being charged unnecessarily high fees and increases.

The government is finally taking long-awaited and necessary steps to better the education system. We hope that making education a priority will remain an important and discussed issue for Congress.