Education Secretary Looks to Commission for Next Steps on Student Debt

Will the U.S. Department of Education fix the broken system that’s supposed to protect student loan borrowers from unaffordable payments and endless debt? Despite soaring interest rates and a formal request from an unprecedented coalition of student, parent, lender and other organizations, the answer appears to be: maybe later.

Those of you who’ve asked the Secretary to repair the repayment rules probably got a written response in the last few days. Among other things, it says the Department won’t consider the practical changes we've proposed until they see what the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education says in its report, due in mid-September.

In just 9 days, the Commission will meet for one of the last times before finalizing its recommendations. Write today and urge the Commission to call for more affordable loan repayment options! Since they’ve already acknowledged the importance of financial aid, there’s a real window of opportunity. But they need to hear from you!

Please contact the Commission before June 28!

(This announcement was sent to the Project on Student Debt mailing list on June 19, 2006.)