Monitor The Cutbacks

ALTHOUGH PRESIDENT REAGAN has apparently granted the Department of Education a stay of execution, he is determined to limit the agency's generosity. One of the programs most likely to suffer is the $5-billion federal aid package for college students. Tuition assistance has grown tremendously during a period of increasing government debt, but Congress must block Reagan from expanding his cuts to the point that the truly needy are denied a first-class education.

Intending to increase access to expensive schools such as Harvard, Congress in 1978 included middle-class families among those eligible for tuition grants and, at the same time, opened the government's guaranteed low-interest loan program to all students. But the legislators' good intentions have in many cases backfired.

Parents who can afford their children's tuitions have jumped at the chance to borrow at reduced rates, investing the money and reaping a profit, while the government provides their capital. Outright grants have been given to some families earning more than $30,000 a year. And the Justice Department has had to send its lawyers after many borrowers who have failed to keep up with their repayments.

Thus, Reagan's attempts to reduce grants to the well off and require a stricter needs test for the Guaranteed Student Loan program seem in order. What Congress must do is hold the president to his promise not to eliminate aid to those students who would not be able to attend college without it. Trimming a program bloated by waste and misuse of funds is admirable, but the government should continue to step up its effort to improve educational opportunity, spending as much money as it takes to provide excellent schooling for anyone who wants it.