The Future of Federal Student Loan Program: Daily Round-Up

Lots of action today to report:

• NASFAA President, Dr. Phil Day, in a letter to the membership today urged financial aid administrators to focus on the historic opportunity to make the Pell Grant a "true entitlement" and to come together to develop a new student loan model:

"If we simply oppose FFELP elimination without offering alternatives or including ourselves in the debate, schools will be forced to move to the Direct Loan program, either because the Obama budget will have been accepted or because ECASLA expires in 2010.

We must move forward in good faith and help design a system that works best for borrowers, taxpayers and institutions. In addition to the importance of providing a workable alternative to the abrupt elimination of FFELP, we must also remember the historic opportunity we have to make the Pell Grant a true entitlement. This is a goal that NASFAA has worked toward for decades, and there are many who never believed we would be so close to seeing this essential change enacted."

• CBA responded to Obama's televised speech on Friday with a press release, of which this is an excerpt from: 

"Responding to today's White House event at which President Obama promoted his plan for eliminating the Federal Family Education Loan program, today the Consumer Bankers Association urged policymakers to take a closer look at the proposal. Under the President's plan, no new FFEL program loans would be made after June 30, 2010."

Interestingly, several months into this debate the CBA has not proposed a detailed and specific alternative student loan plan.  Rather, in this press release, they recommended:

"CBA has called for Congress and the administration to convene a meeting of stakeholders including students, parents, consumer advocates, financial aid administrators, colleges, and loan providers to examine various proposals for change."

• Kevin Bruns, executive director of American Student Loan Providers, had an op-ed piece in Inside Higher Ed, "On Loan Plan, Think Twice":

• More on the "inside the Beltway game" on how the debate over reconciliation for the student loan reform bill transpired last week, from the Washington Monthly.  

• One insider seemed to think that the reconciliation instructions that the House will vote on tomorrow will have an October 15th deadline, seeming to provide ample opportunity for lengthy debate on this issue. 

Comments

[johan Tekila]

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