While it’s important for universities to lobby for financial aid legislation, it’s ultimately up to state and federal lawmakers alike to make higher education opportunities a reality for all students.

Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John King Jr. plans to urge Congress to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act on Wednesday at the Digital Harbor Foundation Tech Center in Baltimore. The call comes after SU officials also pressed lawmakers to revive the program, which expired in September, in a lobbying report for the third quarter of 2015.

The $1.1 billion-dollar act includes funding for the Federal Perkins Loan Program, which provides low-interest federal loans for students with “exceptional financial need,” according to SU’s report. Under the program, eligible undergraduate students can borrow up to $5,500 dollars a year at a 5 percent interest rate. Graduate students can also receive up to $8,000 per year.

The Perkins Loan Program — and in turn an important stride for college affordability — has been swept aside for months. And when policies of this kind provide about 25 percent of SU’s undergraduate students with essential aid, it is critical that the federal government does everything in its power to bring the legislation back as soon as possible.

The failure of federal officials to reauthorize the legislation not only limits opportunities for future students, but also places limitations of those who are currently enrolled.

Students with existing Perkins loans are only eligible for additional loans for the course of college careers as long as they remain at the same school and do not change their major, as reported by USA Today. But students who count on these loans shouldn’t be forced to pursue an area of study because they can’t afford to attend school at all otherwise.

Those who are opposed to the reauthorization of the Perkins legislation have cited fiscal stress and the excessive involvement of the federal government in funding education as concerning. But when more than $1 billion in aid for 500,000 college students nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education data, is on the line, the government should work to uphold these opportunities rather than push them to the bottom of the agenda.