Student Lending Analytics Blog asks the question, "What Do Students Think About Student Loan Reform?" and does a quick overview of editorial pages of college newspapers from coast to coast. Here is what they found:
Most telling is what happened when they went searching for collegiate opponents.
- The Maine Campus (University of Maine): "We applaud the representatives who passed what amounts to the largest higher education aid reform bill of our lives. We hope the Senate follows suit."
- The Daily Cardinal (Stanford University): "The bill will help students graduate with less debt while saving taxpayers money. Such action is wise and long overdue."
- The Lariat online (Baylor University): "Though the opposition may see this as just another area overtaken by the federal government that may lead to job loss through the industry or a burden on universities during the transition out of their respective federal lending programs, it is a risk and a burden well worth shouldering."
- Daily Pennsylvanian (University of Pennsylvania): "Private lenders have shown that they are more trouble than they are worth, and redirecting the savings into expanding grants to students is an excellent, efficient redistribution of resources. We hope the House passes this bill."
- Georgetown Voice (Georgetown University): "It is essential that the Senate passes this bill. As Hoyas who claim to strive for a diverse community, we must lend our support to initiatives like this, which are crucial to enabling people from every background to come here."
- The Daily Reveille (LSU): "It’s finally time for banks to get their hands out of private education...Banks should not be in the business of profiting off the loans of students seeking the critical skills needed to compete in a global economy. Higher education deserves better. Our nation’s undergraduates deserve every chance to succeed in America, and thus to make America succeed with them."
- Indiana Daily Student (University of Indiana): "This bill decreases government bureaucracy, increases efficiency, wastes fewer taxpayer dollars and stops payouts to financial institutions for doing absolutely nothing but shifting their losses onto taxpayers. What’s not to love?"
It is somewhat curious that if you Google "students who support FFELP" you will get the following message: No results found for "students who support FFELP".Learn why college and university papers from coast to coast support the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
As expected, students aren't choosy as to source of capital. But in a unified source of funds, they would welcome a price break from 6.8% if the true funding cost is lower than FFELP (as proponents of DL claim). And in repayment they deserve the same comprehensive debt management as they receive from the NASLA guarantors in current FFELP. In current DL, only pre-default due diligence at 180 days and nothing else, how sad.
Mr. Marais,
The Department of Education’s new contacts for servicing DL loans includes performance-based metrics. Servicers who do a better job with their customers and keep them out of default will be rewarded with increased volumes and higher pay. Regarding your concern about the interest rates, about $9 billion dollars of the savings will be reinvested to make interest rates variable with a 6.8% cap on subsidized federal student loans beginning in 2012. Also, parents and graduate students taking out a PLUS loan from a FFEL school will see an immediate savings with a move to DL. The interest rate for PLUS loans in DL is 7.9%, but 8.5% in FFEL.