Inside Higher Ed

After years of operating in a favorable political environment, student loan companies woke up November 8 knowing that changes in Washington would probably mean trouble for their industry, which has enjoyed a close working relationship with Congressional Republicans (thanks, in part, to their sizable campaign contributions to key GOP lawmakers).

The Democratic takeover in Congress was a hot topic Wednesday at the Consumer Bankers Association Student Lending Conference in Arlington, Va. The leadership change comes at a time when Congress has… more

The National Education Loan Network, known as Nelnet, and its executives top the list of contributors to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to an analysis in the blog of the New America Foundation. Nelnet has been facing scrutiny and criticism of late from the Education Department’s auditors...

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For many months, student loan watchdogs have been charging that lenders have taken advantage of a loophole in federal law to reap billions of dollars in profits to which they were not entitled. Late Friday, the U.S. Education Department’s inspector general strongly backed their view, releasing an audit that accused the National Education Loan Network (Nelnet) of having received $278 million in federal subsidy payments for which it was not eligible and of inappropriately charging the government for as much… more

The rate at which borrowers defaulted on their student loans last year rose for only the second time since the government, lenders and colleges began a major effort in 1992 to bring the rates down, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Education Department.

In announcing that 5.1 percent of borrowers who began repaying their loans between October 1, 2003, and September 30, 2004 had defaulted on those loans by September 2005, department officials emphasized the positive: “I’m pleased to… more