Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, auto loans and mortgages, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the U.S. Department of Education. For the first time, student loans taken out in 2011 exceeded $100 billion with total student loans surpassing $1 trillion. Mounting student debt has forced many students to drop out, resulting in the low college-complet...
I have spent much of my working life studying and promoting student loans. As a good liberal Democrat, I spent years arguing for the expansion of the old Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) which had its roots in Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. My professional life included stints working for one of the nonprofit FFELP agencies and being a co-founder of an entirely private nonprofit, ...
On Thursday, the Education Department released the final "gainful employment" rules for vocational schools. In order to qualify for federal financial aid, for-profit and certificate programs will be required to prepare students for gainful employment by meeting one of three requirements: the average annual student loan payment is not more than 30% of a graduate's discretionary income; the average ...
Students who left postsecondary institutions before earning a degree or certificate—and students who attended two-year and for-profit institutions—faced delinquency on their student loans at much higher rates than their peers, according to a new study released by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP).
Delinquency: The Untold Story of Student Loan Borrowing,...
If only they had their health …
President Obama has emphasized the importance of higher education, and recently implemented ambitious higher education finance reform that will serve to benefit college students now and in the future. Although these changes are noteworthy, little has been done to help the many individuals who currently owe student debt, particularly private debt, and are no lon...
For-profit colleges such as the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University offer an alternative to traditional two-year and four-year non-profit institutions by focusing, if their rhetoric is to be believed, on learning “relevant material you can apply immediately to your workplace.” With the rise in unemployment and the difficulties college grads are experiencing securing jobs, for-p...
Average student loan debt grew to an average of $24,000 per student in the Class of 2009, up 6% over the Class of 2008, according to the latest national report from The Project on Student Debt.The report is especially worrisome for New England where all six states have higher student debts levels than the national average. New Hampshire had the second highest debt load in the nation behind Washing...
I have spent much of my working life studying and promoting student loans. As a good liberal Democrat, I spent years arguing for the expansion of the old Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) which had its roots in Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. My professional life included stints working for one of the nonprofit FFELP agencies and being a co-founder of an entirely private nonprofit, ... 
On Thursday, the Education Department released the final "gainful employment" rules for vocational schools. In order to qualify for federal financial aid, for-profit and certificate programs will be required to prepare students for gainful employment by meeting one of three requirements: the average annual student loan payment is not more than 30% of a graduate's discretionary income; the average ...