"...it makes no difference to student borrowers where their loan comes from..."
Oh really? It makes no difference to a student borrower if they can choose a lender that will reduce their interest rate after 24 ontime payments, as some lenders did a couple of years ago? Or if the lender paid all loan fees? Or if they were offering to consolidate at 4% or less? Or if they were offering more than the miserly .25% reduction for automatic payments that is given with federal direct student loans?
All of these were offered by FFELP lenders to students in 2006. If you believe that the economic climate will never get any better, than by all means support the elimination of the FFELP.
This is not a great loan program. But it can hardly be said to be competing with federal parent college loans. (http://www.collegeloanconsultant.com/par...) After all, one is in the student's name (even if a cosigner is required) and the other is in the parent's name. (Try telling a court that that's just a technicality.)
Instead of comparing the program to federal ones, why not compare it to other state programs? How about Georgia's, where the interest rate drops to 1% if the student graduates on time with a minimal GPA? http://www.collegeloanconsultant.com/Geo...
Cutting the TAP award in a deep recession, when the state should be encouraging older, working New Yorkers to go to college part-time to gain new skills, is insane. When we get a little closer to election time, we'll probably see a new worker retraining program proposal that will cost more than these cuts save.
Private, four-year colleges in New York have priced themselves out of reach for most students. Although federal student loans have increased their limits, they do not come close to covering tuition and fees at these schools.
At a time when 130-160 private lenders have suspended their college loan programs, there is no viable way for students to make up this 'tuition gap'. New York colleges will have to either begin or expand their university loan programs if they want to maintain a diverse student population. http://www.collegeloanconsultant.com/uni...
Posted on May 27 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"...it makes no difference to student borrowers where their loan comes from..."
Oh really? It makes no difference to a student borrower if they can choose a lender that will reduce their interest rate after 24 ontime payments, as some lenders did a couple of years ago? Or if the lender paid all loan fees? Or if they were offering to consolidate at 4% or less? Or if they were offering more than the miserly .25% reduction for automatic payments that is given with federal direct student loans?
All of these were offered by FFELP lenders to students in 2006. If you believe that the economic climate will never get any better, than by all means support the elimination of the FFELP.
http://www.collegeloanconsultant.com/fed...
On Editorial: Cut out the middleman on student loans