 FAP647: Sallie Mae blinks, Schwarzenegger vetoes, Shannon Hurley
from Financial Aid Podcast Daily Free Internet Radio On Demand
October 15, 2007
FAP647: Sallie Mae blinks, Schwarzenegger vetoes, Shannon Hurley Student Financial Aid News + Inside Higher Ed: Late Saturday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a series of vetoes on various bills — and in so doing dashed the hopes of student activists who have been pushing to make it easier for undocumented students to obtain financial aid and to pressure publishers and faculty members into changing practices that some believe contribute to the high price of textbooks. At the same time, Governor Schwarzenegger signed another bill on textbooks, favored by publishers and opposed by student groups. + In his veto message this time, he didn t cite competition in specific aid programs for dollars, but competition for the state budget. At a time when segments of California public higher education, the University of California and the California State University, are raising fees on all students attending college in order to maintain the quality of education provided, it would not be prudent to place additional strain on the general fund to accord the new benefit of providing state subsidized financial aid to students without lawful immigration status, he wrote. Schwarzenegger noted that under existing law, many of these students are already entitled to in-state tuition rates. + Supporters of the legislation noted that there are about 25,000 students who graduate from California high schools each year without documentation to stay in the United States or the right to federal student aid that is essential for many low-income students to afford tuition and other expenses. + Virtually all student loans require US citizenship + Stafford federal student loans + Parent PLUS loans + Private student loans Scholarship Update + Tomorrow s dairy leaders are here today, in 4-H clubs, FFA chapters, college classrooms and on dairy farms across the country. National Dairy Shrine s task is to encourage, stimulate and inspire them. Since its inception, National Dairy Shrine has recognized the importance of laying a foundation for the future, and has constantly expanded its youth programs to capture and challenge the interest of outstanding dairy youth in our industry. Dairy students, our future leaders, are eligible to apply for these National Dairy Shrine recognition programs and scholarships with awards totaling over $30,000. + March 15 deadline of each year + Details at our free college scholarship search site Cover Your Assets + The sequel to the Sallie Mae privacy story! + Financial Aid Podcast listeners were part of the team that forced Sallie Mae to back down with a concerted effort of blog posts, Twitter, and Diggs + From the Chronicle: Sallie Mae, (ticker: SLM) after taking action in at least three states to force colleges to provide it with contact information for their students, is backing off. + The company, which is the nation s largest student-loan provider, described the shift in strategy after an advocacy group (that includes you, podcast listeners!) revealed last week that the lender had filed a New York Freedom of Information Law request asking community colleges in the State University of New York system to provide it with student names, telephone numbers, and mailing and e-mail addresses. + Sallie Mae is reaching out to colleges to clarify that it was never our intention to require them to provide us with information they would not willingly share to help students make informed decisions about their loan options, a company spokesman, Tom Joyce, said in response to an inquiry from The Chronicle. + Sallie Mae had made similar freedom-of-information-law requests of colleges in two other states, said another company spokesman, Conwey Casillas. He did not identify those two states. + One of them was Pennsylvania, according to a blog commenter as well The company filed its demands for the information late last month, around the same time that President Bush signed legislation enacted by Congress cutting more than $20-billion from the subsidies provided to lenders participating in the federally guaranteed student-loan program (The Chronicle, September 10). + Sallie Mae said it wanted the student contact data to help it make more students aware of all of their low-cost loan options. The company, however, has acknowledged that as a result of the federal subsidy cuts, it expects its future profitability to depend more heavily on its ability to write unsubsidized private student loans that are marketed directly to students. + Sallie Mae, in issuing its quarterly earnings report last week, said it expects growth in private student loans in 2008 of up to 20 percent, exceeding projected growth in the mid- to high teens in its federally subsidized loans. Profit on private student loans exceeds 5 percent, compared with less than 2 percent for the federally subsidized loans, the company said. + This is essential to us, C.E. Andrews, Sallie Mae s chief executive, said of private student loans in a meeting Thursday with investors. This is our economic engine on the loan side of the business. + More and more students are accepting private student loans even when they are eligible to borrow through the lower-cost federally subsidized program. The Bush administration, in response, told colleges last month that they can refuse requests for student contact data that are made under federal or state freedom of information laws. + Such data requests are nevertheless discouraged under new ethics guidelines that the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has been promoting in the aftermath of the student-loan scandals revealed earlier this year. + As part of its ethics review, the association came down very heavily in terms of the privacy of borrower information, said Larry Zaglaniczny, the group s director for Congressional relations. And that s why we re suggesting that you can t use it, release it, sell it, transfer it, nor give it. Podsafe Music + Shannon Hurley, Matter of Time Reminders + Get the Financial Aid Podcast by email! + Financial Aid Podcast Show Notes at FinancialAidPodcast.com. + Follow me on twitter! + Discuss this episode at the Financial Aid Forum! + Private student loans available at any time - visit AlternativeStudentLoan.com + Stafford federal student loans at StaffordLoan.com + Student loan consolidation at StudentLoanConsolidator.com + FAFSA form tutorials and free help at FAFSAonline.com + The Financial Aid Podcast is a publication of the Student Loan Network. I want to hear from you! Email me at financialaidpodcast gmail com, visit http://www.FinancialAidPodcast.com, or call 206-350-1208. Direct MP3 file download: MP3 file Technorati Tags: financial aid financialaidpodcast Share This
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