Great news from the Department of Education!

The U.S. Department of Education has announced that it will consider significant changes to student loan repayment rules as part of the “negotiated rulemaking” that starts December 12. The official agenda includes how borrowers’ earnings and family size should be factored into loan payment requirements.

This major opportunity to reduce student loan burdens is the direct result of broad and vocal support for the Five-Point Plan for Fair Loan Payments over the past several months. The appointed negotiators even include Plan supporters from student and legal aid groups as well as the loan industry.

Our thanks to the thousands of students, loan industry representatives, higher education leaders, civil rights groups, Republicans and Democrats in Congress, and organizations of parents, college counselors, and other supporters who asked Secretary Spellings to take this issue on. We’ll keep you in the loop as the negotiations progress.

Student Debt Research Agenda

The New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE) has released a new working paper commissioned by the Project on Student Debt. A Research Agenda for the Study of Student Indebtedness and College Enrollment is by Alicia C. Dowd, Ph.D., a visiting fellow at NERCHE and assistant professor at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. This broad-based, multi-disciplinary agenda identifies key research topics and approaches for filling important information gaps about the effects of student debt, with a focus on informing student aid policy and student advising practices.

(This announcement was sent to the Project on Student Debt mailing list on November 29, 2006)