“Extremely suspect accounting.” The profits made by student loans is “more fiction than fact.” Andrew Kelly explains. (The Atlantic)

Where’s the money? Administrative positions seem to be the next financial leech in higher ed, but the analysis shouldn’t stop there, writes Matthew Yglesias. (Money Box)

Quieting the Dance of the Lemons. In 2011-12, Los Angeles Unified School DistricContinue Reading »

The details of the president’s higher education budget are pretty vague at this point, but from what they’ve released so far, here is the good and bad.

The Good

“Makes Student Loan Interest Rates More Market-Based… The rate on new loans would be set each year based on a market interest rate.”

Determining what the interest rate on studContinue Reading »

Jeff Selingo’s post the other day was a good reminder of how much vital information about student debt we lack, notwithstanding the huge public attention that’s been paid to rising student borrowing in recent years. Both families and policymakers seeking to understand federal student loans and parental PLUS loans need much more fine-grained information about debt levels, default rates, and the Continue Reading »

For the last several months, we’ve seen the results of more than a dozen studies to remake the federal student aid system, part of the Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The idea behind the effort is to seed ideas for the future of financial aid in advance of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The reports include mContinue Reading »

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their latest estimates of Pell grant and student loan program costs for the next 10 years.

For the Pell grant, much of the attention focuses on the funding “shortfall” or surplus, which is unfortunate. This figure is important for Beltway insiders as they play their budget gimmick games, but has pretty much no real-world effect. The same goeContinue Reading »

Over at Zero Hedge, Tyler Durden highlights the findings of a new FICO report on student loans (available at the very bottom of his post).  With all the news stories about the crushing weight of student loans, it would be hard to underestimate the magnitude of the problem. And yet that is precisely what I’ve done. I don’t put a lot of weight on anecdotes and extreme outliers, so while I thoughtContinue Reading »

The fifth capability of Education Sector’s new Higher Ed Data Central that we would like to highlight (see links for the first, second, third, and fourth capabilities) is the ability to develop input-adjusted measures. For example, the Department of Education recently released student loan default rates by college. A list of colleges with the highest default rates could be compiled, but would bContinue Reading »

For every $1 earned by college graduates, those who drop out earn 67 cents. For decades, this degree premium has been the best advertisement for higher education. We know college is worth it, but at what cost to individuals and society?

The question is not an easy one to answer because of the increasingly complex ways students and families are financing their education. Just as colleges Continue Reading »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently floated the idea of allowing private student loans to be wiped out in bankruptcy. Despite the objections of some (such as the Wall Street Journal) this is a good idea. Private student loans should be dischargeable in bankruptcy, while federal student loans should not be. To see why, it helps to take a step back and think about lending in generalContinue Reading »

The College Board released its annual report this week on how Americans finance a higher education, and it showed that for the first time in some two decades the total amount of borrowing for college actually dropped by $5 billion from the previous year. In the face of media reports about college graduates struggling under crushing debt, the report’s authors go to great lengths to point out thaContinue Reading »