Student Lending Victory!

This week, the Senate passed and the President signed into law a bill which will eliminate the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) student lending program.  Instead, all government loans will use the “Direct” lending program.   AFFIL applauds this change, as it will eliminate the subsidies to the lenders who participated in FFEL, saving taxpayers $68 billion over eleven years.

Here’s how the White House describes what the bill does:

• Ends subsidies to special-interest private lending companies.
• Doubles funding for Pell Grants to help more students afford a college education.
• Will cap a graduate’s annual student-loan repayments at 10 percent of his or her income.
• Helps an additional 5 million Americans earn degrees and certificates over the next decade, by revitalizing programming at our nation’s community colleges.

Watch Dr. Jill Biden (Vice Preisdent Joe Biden’s wife, and a community college professor) explain the new law below.

Read more about student lending here.