Commission Calls for "Reduced Debt Burden" -- Time for Education Department to Act

This morning the U.S. Department of Education filed a notice seeking public suggestions about what topics to include in an upcoming “rulemaking” process. For those who have followed our efforts to get the Department to fix the broken student loan repayment rules, this is just the chance we’ve been waiting for.

The Department is particularly interested in following up on the recommendations of the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Thanks in great part to input from many of you, the Commission’s newly approved report identifies “decreased debt burden” as one of the four fundamental principles that should guide our financial aid system. This strong statement is based on the Commission's conclusion that “[t]oo many students are either discouraged from attending college by rising costs, or take on worrisome debt burdens in order to do so.”

We need your help to ensure that the Department takes this opportunity to make student loans more manageable, as the Project on Student Debt and others asked Secretary Spellings to do this spring. Agency officials have told us that they would consider our proposals in the next rulemaking process. That process has now begun.

Join us in asking the Department to include student loan repayment in the upcoming rulemaking process.

Take Action: Join the Call for Loan Reforms
Read our 8/18/06 letter to the Education Department
Learn about the need for reform