Press Releases

President Obama’s Budget is Good News for College Students
The Project on Student Debt - February 1, 2010
Statement from Lauren Asher on the President's FY 2010-11 budget, which includes an historic Pell Grant increase, makes student loan repayment more manageable, and other important reforms to make...

Obama Proposes More Affordable Student Loan Payments
The Project on Student Debt - January 25, 2010
Statement from Lauren Asher about President Obama's proposal to improve Income-Based Repayment.

New Default Rate Data for Federal Student Loans: 44% of Defaulters Attended For-Profit Institutions
The Project on Student Debt - December 15, 2009
The U.S. Department of Education has released a preview of new draft default rates yesterday. The new data show nearly 400,000 students who entered repayment in 2007 had defaulted by 2009,...

House Votes on Consumer Financial Protection Agency Take Important Steps to Rein in Risky Private Student Loans
The Project on Student Debt - December 11, 2009
Statement of Lauren Asher on House passage of a bill to create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would have oversight over all private student loans and help protect consumers from...

Recent College Grads Face Record Debt and Unemployment
The Project on Student Debt - December 1, 2009
College seniors who graduated in 2008 carried an average of $23,200 in student loan debt. Meanwhile, unemployment climbed from an already challenging 7.6 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to...

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Related News

Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans
The New York Times - February 5, 2010
President Obama called the idea a “no-brainer” last fall, predicting it would take billions of dollars from the profits of private lenders and give it directly to students, and many colleges were...

Renewed Push on Pell
Inside Higher Ed - February 1, 2010
"An administration official confirmed Sunday that the president's budget for the Education Department would increase the maximum Pell Grant to $5,710 from the current $5,350 and make the grants an...

How To Calculate Student Loan Payments Under New Obama Plan
Forbes.com - January 27, 2010
"Former students who sign up for income-based repayment currently pay 15% of any income in excess of 150% of the federal poverty line for their family size. That means that a single borrower...

Obama’s Measures for Middle Class
The New York Times - January 25, 2010
"Another of the president’s proposals, a cap on federal loan payments for recent college graduates at 10 percent of income above a basic living allowance, would cost taxpayers roughly $1 billion....

As for-profit colleges flourish, focus turns to grads' success and debt
The Denver Post - January 17, 2010
"While the complaints themselves are not public, state officials told The Post the complaints against public schools are mostly academic in nature — disputes about grades or professors, for...

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