If the federal government doesn’t agree to raise the debt ceiling next week, University students may see an impact on their financial aid packages. Disagreement about the debt ceiling could lead to a decrease in federal funding, which could impact federal student loans and grants, professors say.
According to a memo released in late September by the Department of Education, the government shutdown has already reduced the department to the minimum levels of staff.  
Political science professor James Garand said failing to raise the debt ceiling would cause a reduction in federal spending, which may further reduce the amount of staff available.
Twenty-two percent of University students received some form of federal financial aid last year, according to data released by the University. Students were awarded an average of $5,039 in need-based aid.
Sujuan Boutté, executive director of the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance, said the Department of Education has not released further information on how the debt ceiling debate could affect department operations because of the lower staff levels brought on by                        the shutdown.
The debate over the debt ceiling centers around the federal government’s ability to borrow increasing amounts of money, Garand said. If the ceiling is not raised, the government will only be able to spend what it makes in daily revenue, which Garand said would be around 70 percent of its usual spending.
The difficulty, Garand said, is that an agreement on the debt ceiling will likely not be reached while the government shutdown remains in effect. 
The Department of Education memo states that in the event of a shutdown, the minimum level of staff would be provisionally set at 138 workers for the first week and would increase if the shutdown lasted longer than one week. 
To date, the government has been shut down for 10 days.
The memo also states the minimum level of employees would be sufficient to keep federal student loan and Pell Grant programs available for a short period, but more would need to return from furlough to deal with new requests for financial aid at the end of the year.
However, the Department of Education policy does not account for possible revenue losses caused by failure to raise the debt ceiling.
Garand said if a raise to the debt ceiling cannot be agreed upon, funding to several federal programs would need to be cut.  
In the event of an impasse over the debt ceiling, Garand said the president would need to decide which programs take priority for funding. Garand said funding for education and student loans is popular among Americans, but it’s not clear whether it would continue to be funded if a decision had to be made.
“Americans tend to be sympathetic to students,” Garand said. “But if we have to choose between cutting Social Security from Grandma and cutting student loans for Jonny, it’s obvious who’s going to win.”