Justin Peligri, a senior majoring in political communication, is a Hatchet senior columnist.

It’s not every day that I agree with a star of the Republican Party.

But while former vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. is known more for his work as chairman of the House budget committee than his education policy, he recently released an anti-poverty plan with proposals for higher education that should grab GW students’ attention.

First, let’s take a look at his ideas for Pell Grants. He wants to increase oversight of that system, which provides need-based grants to low-income students, to ensure federal money goes to the students who need it the most. Right now, the government disproportionately allocates grants to students who attend wealthier colleges, according to a report from the New America Foundation, which Ryan points out.

At GW, only about 14 percent of students were recipients of Pell Grant funding last year. That’s a significantly smaller number than most schools. In fact, the University landed in the bottom 5 percent of national Pell freshmen enrollment rates, according to a June report from the Education Trust. The list also includes schools like Northwestern and American universities.

GW’s hefty sticker price might deter many low-income students from submitting an application at all. Sure, living in the nation’s capital for four years is nice. But for many, it makes more sense to attend a cheaper school than to sign on to decades of debt.

Low-income students at GW could stand to benefit from Ryan’s plan. After all, many of us certainly need the support: The average student debt at GW is about $33,000, nearly $4,000 higher than the national average.

Students at Georgetown University, on the other hand, walk away with about $25,000 in debt on average. Georgetown is more selective and ranked higher than GW by most measures, but our debt levels are higher. Even though our default rate is low, about 1.5 percent, this should rightfully cause students concern.

GW’s financial aid pool increased by 3.6 percent this year, allowing the financial aid office to dole out about $233 million to undergraduate and graduate students. Still, the growth only matches the University’s annual tuition increase, which limits how much it can spread among students.

Clearly, there’s still more to be done here at GW to make sure that the University is proactively recruiting and retaining low-income students. But in the meantime, it’s reassuring to see some federal action on this nation-wide predicament. Making college affordable is an undertaking to which both the federal government and individual colleges must dedicate themselves.

A second tenet of Ryan’s higher education plan – capping the amount of loans that graduate students can borrow – also makes sense. Specifically, his goal is to institute a lifetime cap of $138,500 per graduate student, and a $57,000 cap for parents who are borrowing on behalf of their undergraduate children.

We’ve all heard the horror stories of college graduates who had to hold off buying cars, getting married or even having children because they were burdened by loan payments and the accompanying interest rates. The Project on Student Debt also reports that nearly 50 percent of GW graduates walk away owing money – and a sizeable portion of that debt is owed to the federal government.

Realistically speaking, Ryan’s plan is only a Band-Aid. In a perfect world, leaders in Congress would come to a consensus on lowering interest rates – which is what some would argue is the solution at the heart of this debate.

But until that happens, the plan is smart: Limit the amount of money graduate students can borrow so that they’re not stuck paying back their loans decades after graduation day. The government should make it its prerogative to ensure that the loans it gives out don’t come back to bite recipients.

The rest of Ryan’s poverty prevention plan leaves much to be desired. But if the congressman wants to jump on the “make college more affordable” train, traditionally populated by liberals, then I’m all for it.