Just over 400 Iowa college students are getting grants from the Iowa College Student Aid Commission to help them overcome the disasters that hit the state. Commission spokesperson, Brenda Easter, says the students had to show they were impacted by the disasters to be eligible.
She says the grant assistance is intended to help students pay their college tuition, fees and expenses this fall. Easter says they wish they had more money for the program. Easter says if they had funding to pay for more than one year, they would have given that out, but says they had $500,000 available and will be able to help 414 students.
She says they are trying to find some federal funding to help. Easter says the grants will help ease some of the pressure on students. Easter says the goal is to keep students in college this year and get "over the hump" with the expenses they encountered from the disasters. Easter says 700 students applied for the grants.