The state attorney general and his staff are visiting high schools to clue students in to new efforts to protect them from unscrupulous college loan practices, and Nottingham’s turn came Wednesday.

Leslie Leach, executive deputy attorney general for state counsel, handed out copies of a new Student Bill of Rights to 20 or so students who were invited by Nottingham’s staff to meet with him.

The Bill of Rights is part of a new state law that aims to protect students and families from deceptive college loan practices. The Student Lending Accountability, Transparency and Enforcement Act became law in May.

It sprang from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s national investigation of questionable practices of colleges and universities and the student-loan industry, such as lenders giving kickbacks to colleges for steering students to them.

One result is that Citibank, Education Finance Partners and Sallie Mae agreed to put a combined $6.5 million into a consumer education fund to educate students and parents about the college loan process.

Cuomo or his staff visited schools in several regions around the state in the last couple of weeks to spread the news about the new protections before the school year ends.

Number one on the Bill of Rights is “The right to unbiased advice about loans and lenders from your financial aid office.”

It is followed by “The right to choose the lender that is best for you, even if that lender is not included on your school’s preferred lender lists.”

Leach handed out laminated Bill of Rights cards, and told Nottingham students New York state has the only such bill in the country.

Nottingham senior Amanda Greenberg, 17, asked him if he planned to distribute the information not just to schools, but also to the preferred lenders.

They’ve gotten the message, Leach said.

It’s a little late for seniors to be getting information about student loans, but Greenberg said after the meeting it was better to get it now than never.

“It helps all students to know exactly what they are dealing with,” she said.

Go to www.oag.state.ny.us for more information. The site includes the entire Student Bill of Rights.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 10:26 pm and is filed under College Loans, Education. Tags: College, College Loans, Education, Financial Aid, 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.