Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Friday issued a legal opinion that appears to put the kibosh on Gov. Blagojevich’s controversial plan to sell the Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s $4 billion student loan portfolio — which could reap the state at least $100 million.

The opinion states the commission can’t sell the entire portfolio and discontinue the student loan program without legislative approval.

But Blagojevich and commission chairman Don McNeil believe the state can work within those guidelines to sell some of the portfolio loans for a hefty profit.

Could fund tuition tax credits
Some of the proceeds would go toward a program that would give Illinois college students $500 tuition tax credits and boost funding to state universities.

McNeil, a Chicago employment lawyer, said a request for proposals will be issued next week. He said whatever the commission decides to do will be consistent with Madigan’s opinion.

“I think there’s confusion between the portfolio and the [student loan] program. The idea that if we sell the portfolio there is no program is not the case,” he said.

The program “is not going away.”

A Madigan spokeswoman said the opinion clearly states “the entire student loan portfolio can not be sold without legislative approval … and if part is sold, the proceeds must be used to further the purposes of the commission.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 12:57 am and is filed under College Loans, Education, Student Loan. Tags: College, Loans, Student, Student Loan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.