Inside Higher Ed

The New America Foundation released its own report today that questions the need for student loan guarantee agencies but offers Congress, should it decide to sustain a role for them, ideas for how to adapt their role.

Analysts at the New America Foundation, which takes a generally skeptical view of the student loan industry and has editorialized in favor of the Obama plan, questioned some of the principles underlying the lenders' alternative proposal.

The New America Foundation and the Center for Social Development, a unit of Washington University in St. Louis, on Thursday announced a joint effort to study "529" plans, with a specific goal of making them more attractive to low-income families. ...

... already decided how to allocate the education funds they're receiving from the federal stimulus package are directing the bulk of the money to elementary and secondary education, according to an analysis of 13 states by the New America Foundation. ...

During the Bush Administration, the Education Department signaled approval for some lender policies that then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings halted in 2007, according to an investigation by the New America Foundation's Higher Ed Watch blog. ...

The latest installment of the debate unfolded Tuesday during a forum here at the New America Foundation, a think tank whose higher education analysts are strongly allied with and generally supportive of the new administration's policies, including its plans to restructure the loan programs.

Michael Dannenberg, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, also focused on governors. He suggested Roy Romer, who in addition to being the former governor of Colorado was also superintendent of the Los Angeles public school district. Dannenberg called him “smart, political, well-versed, intellectually curious.” LINK

(Quick Takes) - “Where in the World is Matteo Fontana?” That’s the question posed by Higher Ed Watch, a blog of the New American Foundation, about the former general manager of the Financial Partners Division of the U.S. Department of Education student aid department, who was placed on leave last year after the blog revealed that he held stock in a loan company at the center of last year’s loan scandals — at a time he would have… more

Hedging Bets on Student Loan Availability (Inside Higher Ed)

. . . “I think he’s doing the right thing in seeking to calm fears of parents or financial aid officers scared by newspaper headlines, and by demonstrating that Congress is ready to act should there be widespread problems for students themselves, as opposed to some lenders,” said Michael Dannenberg, director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation. Dannenberg said that Kennedy’s plan should be viewed not… more

A Student Loan Credit Crunch — But for Whom? (Inside Higher Ed)

. . . “Students with poor credit ratings, particularly those at trade schools whose graduates have poor repayment track records, might be unable to find a willing private student loan provider,” the New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program wrote on its blog this month. “All students, however, who apply for a private student loan with a creditworthy co-signer should be able to obtain a loan and obtain it at a lower… more