The House on Wednesday approved far-reaching changes in student aid programs, voting to slash $19 billion in federal subsidies to student lenders over five years, while increasing grants for needy students and halving interest rates on federally backed loans with the savings.
The bill passed 273-149, in a sometimes-raucous debate, with 47 Republicans joining Democrats, who [...]

Maria College has received a $7,500 grant from the New York State Higher Education Services Corp. to implement an online course to teach students about their finances.
The course is designed to educate students at the Albany, N.Y., college, and others, about student loans and repayment practices, as well as to equip them with practical financial [...]

A bill before Congress would cut billions in federal subsidies for the student loan industry and increase the amount of money available for needy students – with funding coming from the pockets of lenders. The industry is under assault after reports of unethical financial relationships between universities and private lenders.
Loan industry defenders say the [...]

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo urged Congress to step up supervision of private education lending and said he is widening his investigation of the $85 billion-a-year industry to examine loan criteria.
Private lending is more subject to abuse because it isn’t covered by anti kickback rules in government loan programs, Cuomo told the Senate’s banking [...]

Sallie Mae Senior Vice President Barry Goulding today testified at the Senate Banking Committee hearing, ‘Paying for College: The Role of Private Student Lending’ to demonstrate how Sallie Mae serves students and parents in the private education loan market.
Goulding emphasized Sallie Mae’s ‘1-2-3 approach’ to paying for college: 1) after tapping personal financial resources such [...]

Last week, members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would cut student loan interest rates in half.
“The motivation is to help college graduates alleviate their debt load and to make college more affordable to students by making loans and loan rates more manageable,” said Nicole Young, press secretary for [...]

Ready to pass a cut in student loan interest rates, House members on Wednesday clashed over education priorities — helping college graduates pay off debts or expanding federal grants for low-income students.
Democrats were pushing the interest rate bill through without amendments, eager to check off one more accomplishment in their list of early legislative goals. [...]

The University of Kentucky came out relatively well in a gloomy national report yesterday that said when student financial aid is handed out, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
UK got an overall grade of “C” in a study by The Education Trust that criticized the nation’s 50 flagship public universities for increasing [...]

A year ago, students and parents who borrowed to cover college costs rushed to lock in the lowest interest rates in four decades.
Now those who haven’t consolidated their loans under the federal student-loan program are being urged to do so before July 1.
The reason: The deficit-reduction bill that President Bush signed earlier this year cuts [...]