Time For A Student Aid Summit

I couldn't help, but think, as I watched the Health Care summit this morning, that it was time for a similar confab on student aid reform.  Why?  Given what many describe as a "once in a generation opportunity", it would seem to be worth a day to get a roomful of experts (ground rules:  no prepared statements, question and answer format with professional facilitator, students and parents provide some questions, seating chart set up so opponents sit next to each other) to tackle issues greater than who should be originating federal student loans:

• How is the rising tide of student loan defaults going to be managed?  
  • When the largest servicer says that they can't make contact with delinquent borrowers for the contracted rate of $0.90, I get a bit concerned. 
  • Almost nine months into income-based repayment (often seen as a panacea), I think it is time for a full accounting of how the implementation has gone for both Direct and FFEL servicers. 
  
  
• What can be done to improve college affordability aside from increasing the supply of grants and loans which have historically had difficulty keeping up with the rate of tuition inflation?

• What specific efforts should be made at the institutional level to assist low-income students, who tend to make up a disproportionate share of loan defaults?

• How can the financial aid process and the number of grant and loan programs be simplified? 

• From Paul Combe of ASA commenting on recent SLA post:  "The big question is, will “default prevention,” encompassing the kind of proactive contact and education services that borrowers really need to keep their loans in good standing, be funded? Like anything in life, prevention costs more in the short-term but less in the long-term; as a nation, do we have the gumption to do the right thing in this case and provide education loan borrowers the quality of services they deserve?

What other questions would you like to see asked at a student aid summit?  What would you select as the most important issue to be addressed?

Comments

[Bizzaro Watchdog]

The so-called Health Care summmit was a sham. There's no compromising with a party that sees through its (temporary) large majorities, the opportunity to cram the left's decades-old wish list down the throats of Americans. It's absurd to even suggest a student loan summit--it'll be a complete waste of time. Shame. Our benevolent leaders in Washington have decided to provide equality of outcome for every American. Government-sponsored equality has never worked in the history of humanity, but, as Einstein so elegantly put it: "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." I wonder how many everyday Americans think the idiots in DC are insane? I wonder? I guess we'll find out in November.