Middle Income Student Assistance Act

(Measure passed House, amended, in lieu of H.R. 11274)

Middle Income Student Assistance Act - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to prescribe the percentage of parental discretionary income which can be calculated for basic educational opportunity grant contributions to financially disadvantaged undergraduate students at not in excess of 10.5 percent for years after the 1978-1979 academic year.

Requires program regulations to provide independent students who have dependents with the same asset exemption as is provided to a family of a dependent student. Requires that the amount which is exempted for subsistence costs from the income of single independent students be calculated under regulations in the same manner as those amounts calculated for all other students.

Modifies the reduction procedure for basic educational opportunity grants.

Prohibits the payment of any basic grant entitlements during fiscal year 1980 if the campus-based supplemental educational opportunity grant and college work-study programs are not funded at prescribed levels.

Allows payments under the State Student Incentive Grant program to certain States even through their constitutions bar nonprofit institutions of higher education from participation in such program.

Prohibits any age limitation on the eligibility of veterans for any program for students from disadvantaged backgrounds authorized by the Higher Education Act.

Includes participation in an approved rehabilitation training program as a reason for the deferral of the repayment of federally insured student loan principal, and the repayment of a State guaranteed loan. Deletes the adjusted family income requirement and the certification of need requirement for purposes of qualifying for student loan interest subsidies.

Provides that any Federal, State, or private low-interest insured higher education student loan may be counted as part of the expected family contribution in the determination of need for educational opportunity grants, college work-study grants, and other specified Federal student assistance programs.

Includes in the definition of "propriety educational institution of higher education", institutions which admit persons who are past the age of compulsory school attendance who may benefit from the training offered by the institution.

Requires that any determination of need made for the college work-study program and the national direct student loan program consider the educational expenses for other dependent children in the student's family.