Draft Rules Would Ease Student-Loan Burdens for Some

Chronicle of Higher Education

In a package of proposed rules circulated among a team of negotiators this week, the department is seeking to make it easier for certain disabled borrowers and public servants to have their debts forgiven.

6 Colleges Cutting Tuition

SmartMoney

While tuition bills continue to skyrocket, a small but growing number of private colleges and universities are bucking the trend and going on sale.

Student loan debt: The next financial disaster?

CBS Money Watch

Student loan debt is pushing a growing number of Americans into bankruptcy and an organization of bankruptcy lawyers predicted this week that the college debt problem could become as big a catastrophe as the home mortgage crisis.

S&P Warns Student Loans May Be The Next Bubble To Burst In US Economy

Huffington Post

Student Loan Debt Woes Fuel Bankruptcy

Investor's Business Daily

A new survey by the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys found that 81% of bankruptcy attorneys say that potential clients with student-loan debt have increased either "significantly" or "somewhat" in the last three to four years. The sharp recession and historically sluggish economic and jobs recovery have taken their toll. But the numbers are another sign that major troubles may lie ahead for higher education. Critics contend that we are in the middle of a "higher education bubble," meaning that increasingly the value of a college degree does not match the rising cost.

UC Students Propose Alternative To Tuition Increases

NPR - Morning Edition

Under the Fix UC proposal, students would pay 5 percent of their income for 20 years following graduation. Fix UC recently presented the idea to the university regents. The idea is that students would have a dependable bill to pay, rather than wrestling with unpredictable tuition increases and rising debt. It's an appealing idea to some, but not a brand new one. Bob Shireman of the nonprofit group California Competes says conservative economist Milton Friedman wrote about similar concepts in the 1950s, saying education should be seen as an investment.

Online Campaign Prompts Sallie Mae to Change Fee Policy for Loan Suspensions

New York Times

On Thursday, three months after Bank of America backed down from imposing a $5 monthly debit card fee in response to an online petition, Sallie Mae changed its fee policy in response to an online petition. For years, Sallie Mae had required unemployed people who could not afford their monthly payments to pay a $50-per-loan fee every three months to suspend their payments temporarily, even as interest charges mounted. Sallie Mae called this forbearance fee a "good faith deposit" - but it was neither credited to the borrower's account nor refunded.

Unemployed Criticize Sallie Mae 'Forbearance Fee'

Inside Higher Ed

A petition asking Sallie Mae to revoke the $50 quarterly "forbearance fee" that the lender imposes on borrowers who are unable to repay their student loans has gathered more than 75,000 signatures. Forbearance, when loans continue to accumulate capitalized interest although borrowers do not have to make payments, is the last resort to avoid default, and the petition protests the $50 fee as an "unemployment tax."

Parents Snared in $100 Billion College Debt Trap Risk Retirement

Bloomberg News

It's not just graduates who are staggering under the weight of educational loans. Parents, too, are borrowing record amounts to put their kids through college, jeopardizing their retirements. With the housing crisis, many families can no longer avail themselves of one popular option for financing university studies: taking out a second mortgage.

Student debt: Obama gets it, Romney and Gingrich don't

Forbes Magazine - Opinion Piece

This isn't the first time Obama has used the State of the Union platform to draw attention to college affordability and student debt but I noticed two major differences in his latest speech: (1) the president's rhetoric has become decidedly stronger and (2) he drew a direct line from the personal burden of student debt to the more abstract concept of long-term economic competitiveness. Obama is painting the issue as not just good social policy but fundamental economics.