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Congress Passes Legislation Ending the Federally-Guaranteed Student Loan Program

Congress Passes Legislation Ending the Federally-Guaranteed Student Loan Program

Mark Kantrowitz / Publisher of FinAid and FastWeb

September 22, 2009

The US House of Representatives passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (SAFRA) on September 17, 2009 by a party-line vote of 253 to 171.

This legislation eliminates the federally-guaranteed student loan program and replaces it with 100% direct lending from the federal government. SAFRA uses the savings to fund an increase in the Pell Grant program among other initiatives. The US Senate is expected to consider its own version of the legislation within a few weeks.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that ending the origination of federal education loans by banks and other financial institutions would save the federal government $87 billion over the next ten years.

The education lenders countered with their own proposal, but the CBO scored it as saving $13 billion less. The Obama administration argues that the Direct Loan program saves the government money by eliminating the middleman. However, much of the savings comes from the federal government’s lower cost of funds.

From a practical perspective, most students will not notice much of a difference between the Direct Loan and federally-guaranteed student loan programs. Money is fungible — it’s still green whether it comes from a bank or from the US Department of Education.

The Direct Loan program has a lower interest rate on the PLUS loan program (7.9% versus 8.5%) due to a legislative drafting error that was never corrected. PLUS loan approval rates are also higher in the Direct Loan program. Customer service is a bit better during the loan origination process in the Direct Loan program, but a bit worse during repayment.

However, the US Department of Education has awarded contracts to four of the largest education lenders to service loans in the Direct Loan program. The SAFRA legislation has no impact on existing student loans or borrowers who have already graduated.

About half of the savings will be used to index the maximum Pell Grant to the inflation rate plus 1%. It would increase to $5,550 in 2010-2011 and likely reach $6,900 by 2019-2020. However, it does not turn the Pell Grant into a true entitlement program. Congress could still cut Pell Grant funding during the annual budget appropriations process as it did in 2008.

The legislation also eliminates all of the asset questions and many of the untaxed income questions on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), cutting about a page from the six-page form. This will eliminate any penalty for savings in the federal need analysis formula, so there will no longer be any disincentive to saving for college.

SAFRA includes several provisions relating to student loans. The interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduate students will switch to a variable rate capped at 6.8% starting on July 1, 2012. Otherwise the interest rate would have increased from 3.4% to 6.8% on that date, a big jump.

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Annual funding for the Perkins Loan program would increase four-fold from $1.5 billion to $6.0 billion a year. While the new Perkins loan would no longer have subsidized interest, the interest rate would remain at 5.0%. Students at many more colleges would become eligible for the Perkins loan.

The new College Access Challenge Grant program would be focused on increasing enrollment, persistence and completion rates. It would fund financial literacy programs and make it easier for students to transfer from 2-year colleges to 4-year colleges. There would also be a significant increase in funding for community colleges and minority institutions.


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    mrobeng

    2 months ago

    oh yeah and Stephanie4096 whoever you are..my parents have FOUR girls who all are trying to make something of themselves by going to college and we DON'T think our parents responsibility to pay for our tuition...that isn't fair at all. why don't you think before you write next time. and your excessive use of the caps lock button was obnoxious.
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    mrobeng

    2 months ago

    i agree with you michael. unfortunatly, just becaus the house has passed this bill, doesnt mean that the senate will. the sucky part is i just might not pass. theres a lot more that goes with this bill than is in writing.

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    MFrancesL

    5 months ago

    I am a senior citizen who is currently about half way through a graduate degree in social work. I find myself rather leery about borrowing money directly from the government. They don't have a good track record with most of the programs where they are in direct control. I will be watching this direct loan system very carefully. If it gets bogged down, I can still go to Sallie Mae (an excellent compahy who dealt with my undergraduate loans), borrow the money to pay the government off and get out from under them. I enter this new program with skepticism and caution.

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    CarlosF52

    5 months ago

    It's a good thing...

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    DANYELLEDUTRA1

    5 months ago

    i have read most of these comments and no one has even thought about how much the government will even loan us. I am a 33 single mom who needs all the help i can get.full-time i need my full Pell grant and the max available in Stafford loans. What if they lower the max?that wouldn't help. I don't think they should change a thing except gives us more $ in grants to help pay for our interest rates. And hopefully everyone is realistic about picking they're major in a demanding field. Instead of acting classes or something far fetched.....u get what I mean. And it's great for that 1 girl who seems 2 b sooooo self-sufficient and doesn't like free money....whatever....fine work ur a** off and i doubt u have a high GPA

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    RoseD79

    5 months ago

    The elimination of the penalty for savings is HUGE. I agree. THis is a GOOD thing! Now, if only colleges would quit raising their tuition and fees out of sync with the rest of the economy.

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    AmandaB2895

    5 months ago

    This just said that the interest from our loans would go to Pell Grants, and then it said the government would be taking money away from the Pell Grant Program..did anyone catch that?

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    AprilT68

    5 months ago

    It's a guaranteed loan retard. Were you not reading it? And I believe it's the governments job to pay for health care. They take our money for everything else, in taxes, so that they can pay for things like that. If they're not paying for it then what the hell are they doing it for? There is no loan for health care, if you can't afford it then you don't have anything. I hope that you gain some compassion before you're put in a similar situation where you have nothing. When you can't afford something, you can't afford something. It shouldn't have to come between "My kids can either eat or we can have health care?" That's a decision no parent or anyone ever have to make. Grow up

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    AprilT68

    5 months ago

    It's a guaranteed loan retard. Were you not reading it? And I believe it's the governments job to pay for health care. They take our money for everything else, in taxes, so that they can pay for things like that. If they're not paying for it then what the hell are they doing it for? There is no loan for health care, if you can't afford you don't have anything. I hope that you gain some compassion before you're put in a similar situation where you have nothing. When you can't afford something, you can't afford something. It shouldn't have to come between "My kids can either eat or we can have health care?" That's a decision no parent or anyone ever have to make. Grow up

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    LaurenH1253

    5 months ago

    RonnieB82.. its not everyone's responsibility to pay for health care.. it is a personal thing and if you want it find a way to afford it that doesn't increase taxes and create more debt.

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    LaurenH1253

    5 months ago

    JalisaM20.. okay since the bank won't be screwing you over.. instead it's the government.. wow big difference.

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    LaurenH1253

    5 months ago

    I'm sorry but this really eliminates the amount of students able to recieve loans. it allows the government to pick and choose who they believe should recieve a loan, and chances are there are now less to give. With a decreased interest rate, the government isn't getting back their money as quickly thus causing more debt for a period of time.

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    Paffa34

    5 months ago

    I had to have a co-signer, I am truly ignorant about any options I have, if I even had any. The government declares my parents "rich" because they make a little over 125k put together. Barring all of their car and home loans, they really are by no means rich. I received no grants, nor have I ever won any scholarships, on any of these websites. Also my degree is technically completely useless(Fine Arts), but I learned so much, most people ridicule liberal arts degrees. My fellow students and some instructors continually say that if we do not "make it" we probably never will. I'm now on my last year of school, and I don't even know what's next, will I even be able to even get a job above minimum wage and move out of my parents household? I don't even want them to pay a dime of my loans. I mean will I even benefit from this? Whatever this is promising even... I should be scared, but I am too baffled to be, being told I have to go to college at 17, it's almost a joke looking at it all now, I have no job, I still haven't been hired for the minimum wage jobs that I wanted. Yes these are my concerns, I'm sure there's thousands of others with worse problems, and everyone has worked 5 jobs while going to school fulltime and had some condition, blah blah blah, and have managed, believe it or not my concern isn't about myself, I just don't want my parents to end up paying my parts of the loans at all, I don't even know if minimum wage will be enough to pay my loans for the rest of my life. I certainly don't want to be living under my parents in the next 2-3 years.

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    ShannonS325

    5 months ago

    KarenC839 I could not have put it better!!!! I'm a single mom with one on her second year of college and one ready to go in next year! This is veeeery good news! Read and research kids before you run your mouths!

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    JalisaM20

    5 months ago

    I have to agree with NicoleM125. This is a great opportunity. Which would you prefer, the banks screwing you or the government giving you more financial opportunity. The banks have been in control long enough. And I wish everybody would stop cryihng over this healthcare situation. If you would just take the time and read about it and stop listening to political reporters you can adhere to what the plan is trying to do. Everybody keep crying about the they don't want the government controlling their healthcare, who do you think controls it now through Medicare and Medicaid? DAH!!!! It's time out for being a racist. The majority of the individuals who is against this financial plan and the healthcare plan are just upset because this is coming from a Black Man, who happens to be President. And yes I am not an African American and Yes I am a republican. So get over yourselves. There is just too much hatered in this world today. You are only hurting yourselves.

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