Student Loan Blog

In a move intended to avoid a shortfall in student loans next year, Congress has expanded the government program to buy federally guaranteed student loans from private lenders. Under the updated loan-purchase plan, the Education Department can now buy lenders’ student loans with origination dates between Oct. 1, 2003, and ...

Some small U.S. colleges and universities are concerned that they may be the target of a new bill that would force schools with multi -billion dollar endowments, like Harvard, to reduce their tuition costs, and place other high-tuition institutions without large endowments at a financial disadvantage when competing for students, ...

To ensure all students have access to student loans regardless of what type of school they attend, two Democratic senators introduced legislation Tuesday that would prohibit banks and other lenders from “picking and choosing” which institutions of higher education they do business with, according to a New York Times article (“Bill Promotes ...

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., sent a letter Monday to the American Association of Community Colleges, urging its members to enroll in the government’s Direct Loan Program in order to ensure community college students have access to student loans for the 2008–09 academic year.Kennedy, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, ...

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., will “pinch hit” for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. — the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions who is recovering from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor — in Senate and House negotiations to overhaul the Higher Education Act (HR 4137 and S 1642). Mikulski, the third-most ...

On May 7, President George Bush signed into law legislation intended to help stabilize the $85-billion student loan industry and to avert a predicted shortage in student loans. The law will allow the U.S. Department of Education to buy bundled student loans that lenders have been unable to sell to investors. Sales of these loans will ...

In a letter sent to the American Council on Education on April 15, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, urged colleges to sign up for the Department of Education’s Federal Direct Loan Program as a preventive measure against the potential funding inadequacies within the Federal Family Education Loan ...

In the last six months alone, since legislators eliminated over $21 billion in subsidies to student loan lenders in the Federal Family Education Loan Program, at least 44 FFELP lenders have stopped originating federal student loans.This exodus of lenders from the federal student loan program, combined with the current credit and liquidity crunch ...