This is the last post in a week of blogging about ES’s recent report on student loan default rates. Previous posts have talked about what the Texas I-20 corridor can teach us about loan defaults, what the numbers say about why institutions matter in default prevention, and specific steps institutions can take to lower defaults.
But [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Guaranty Agencies'
What Can a Policymaker Do?
Cohort Default Rates: FFEL vs. DL
When asked by the Chronicle of Higher Education why the chain of for-profit schools he oversees had such a high three-year cohort default rate, Arthur Benjamin, the chief executive of ATI Career Training Center, cited the fact that his institutions did not provide loan counseling after two years. What’s funny about that explanation is that [...]
The Death Penalty Theory of Student Loan Repayment
A common argument used by advocates of the death penalty is that the threat of capital punishment serves as a crime deterrent because the fear of such a harsh sentence scares potential perpetrators from breaking the law. That logic does not work for crime, so why should lenders assume that similar logic will help reduce [...]
Federal Student Aid’s Annual Report
Federal Student Aid (FSA), the office within the U.S. Department of Education that handles loans and grants, recently published its fiscal year 2009 report. This document provides a lot of interesting information about the general state of federal postsecondary assistance and also rates the office’s performance over the past year. It’s a fairly long document, [...]
Student Loan Reform is About More Than Cost Savings
With health care reform’s progress making a tortoise look like Usain Bolt (Saturday’s vote notwithstanding), efforts to reform the federal student loan programs have been more or less stuck in a holding pattern for the last seven weeks. Such inaction has provided time for new ideas and proposals to emerge and for those opposed to [...]
UPDATED: SAFRA Amendments
Later this afternoon week, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on H.R. 3211, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, a piece of legislation that would end subsidies for companies participating in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program. This vote will also be the last chance for House members to amend [...]
Don’t Add a Bailout to a Bailout
The College Access and Completion Innovation Fund is being billed as an exciting new reform program that will move the federal government’s traditional higher education role beyond providing grants and loans. But if that’s true, then why does the version of the fund proposed by the House of Representatives include a provision that directs money [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.