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With a Democratic majority in Congress, students are likely to see the introduction of new programs and agendas for higher education.

The Democratic Party has published the “Six-Point Plan for 2006,” which highlights education as one of its main concentrations.

The agenda includes making college tuition tax deductible, expanding Pell Grants, and cutting student loan interest rates.

“Access to higher education will become a very powerful issue under the Democrats,” said Susanne Lohmann, a UCLA professor of political science and public policy.

“Access” has become the Democrats’ code word for increasing the numbers of lower-income students who are represented at elite universities, Lohmann said.

In the lead up to the Nov. 7 election, Nancy Pelosi, then the minority House leader who will now be the majority leader in the House, said if the Democrats retook the House, the party would make access to public higher education a top priority.

Pelosi also announced earlier this month the Democratic “Innovation Agenda,” which promises a commitment to training math and science educators and has supported an increase in the Pell Grants.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has also been working on programs to increase the Pell Grant. The federally funded grant is awarded to full-time students and ranges between $400 and $4,050.

President Bush said during his 2004 election campaign that he was planning on increasing the Pell Grant maximum to $5,100, but it has not changed in four years.

“The (Democrats’) general trend is in favor of Pell Grants and changing selection criteria for prestigious elite universities to admit lower-income students,” Lohmann said.

But Lohmann was uncertain about how far Democrats would actually prioritize education and said she did not expect drastic changes in the near future.

“I don’t think higher education is at the top of the (Democrats’) agenda,” she said. “I don’t really expect right off the bat a lot of activity, but more in the long run.”

In the past month, Democratic senators from across the country have been trying to push legislation that concentrates on higher education through Congress.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., future chairman of the chamber’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, introduced in 2005 the College Quality, Affordability and Diversity Act in order to combat the heavy loans students are collecting.

If passed, the act will help expand access to college, enhance teacher quality, and promote diversity, according to the act’s summary in the Library of Congress.

Clinton and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., co-sponsored the act, which is in the first stages of its legislative process.

The act would enable borrowers to refinance their consolidated loans and increase funding for programs which improve access to college for minorities and first-generation students.

Clinton, a member of the education committee, has been working on a variety of different bills that concentrate on higher education.

She sponsored the Student Borrower Bill of Rights, which defines rights students have when paying off college loans, including the right to make affordable loan payments and the right not to be exploited by their lenders.

This bill is also in its first stages of the legislative process.

Baucus, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has been working on an “American competitiveness agenda” which, according to the senator’s Web site, aims to promote more accessible and more affordable higher education.

In September, he introduced the Baucus Education Competitiveness Act of 2006. The act outlines some very basic and some very bold ideas regarding higher education, said Carol Guthrie, Baucus’ spokeswoman.

The act includes specific goals, such as increasing the Pell Grant to $6,000 by 2007, and more general aims, such as waiving college tuition for anyone who studies and becomes a math or science teacher.

Like many of the other Democratic senators, Pelosi has said she wants to raise the Pell Grant maximum.