Budget bill helps 2 eastern Kentucky colleges

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The bill U.S. lawmakers passed early Friday to keep the government open also protects a pair of small Appalachian colleges in Sen. Mitch McConnell's home state.

Berea College in eastern Kentucky does not charge tuition and only accepts students who cannot afford to pay. The school relies mostly on its $1 billion endowment. But the Republican tax plan that passed last year included a tax on the school's endowment that would have cost it $1 million a year and forced it to accept fewer students.

Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College is in danger of losing some federal funding because, for at least three years in a row, more than 30 percent of the school's students have defaulted on federal student loans.