Student Loan

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

It is something of a truism that whenever the federal government steps in, costs usually rise and efficiency declines. That is especially true when it comes to a college education, which President Barack Obama promised during the 2008 campaign to make more affordable. "We've got to make sure every young person can afford to go to college," he said then. Instead, tuition costs keep rising, along with the debt owed by increasing numbers of graduates, who are now campaigning -- with bipartisan approval in an election year -- for Congress to stop interest rates on their subsidized Stafford loans from doubling in July.

I usually agree wholeheartedly with Eileen Ambrose, but this time she has gone too far in advocating for the hijacking of the student loan program by the federal government ("Student loan industry's 'takeover' by federal government is overdue," March 21). And attaching this proposal, with its wide-ranging effects on our banking and student loan system, to the proposal to remake the health care system by the feds is tantamount to slipping a "mickey finn" to the citizenry, who will wake up with thousands, no, likely tens of thousands of new government jobs with their wonderfully high-cost pension and health schemes, of which private employees can only dream.

Young people face a cruel irony. Most can't land a decent job without a college education, yet many graduates are locked into poorly paying positions that don't permit repayment of student loans. For two generations, college price tags have risen much faster than inflation and families' ability to pay. More importantly, costs have leaped faster than what graduates can earn over working lifetimes, and many diplomas do not offer a positive return on investment, as measured by graduates' ability to service their debt.

A data security breach at a nonprofit student loan company compromised the personal information of 76,939 Maryland residents, according to the identity theft unit of the state attorney general's office. A form of "portable media" was stolen in March from Minnesota-based Education Credit Management Corp. containing data including names, addresses and Social Security numbers for about 3.3 million people nationwide. Under Maryland law, businesses that keep your personal information are required to notify you if that information has been compromised.

T he federal student loan program has gone through many changes in its 45-year history, and now it's time for the next big step: cutting out the middleman. That's what the Obama administration proposes to do starting in July. Students now get federal loans through a private lender or directly from the government. Obama wants all federal loans to come straight from Uncle Sam, which would create a net savings of $62 billion through 2020, according to figures last week from the Congressional Budget Office.

About 320,000 student borrowed who started to repay their loans in 2009 were in default by the end of 2010, according to the latest figures from the Department of Education. The department said that 8.8 percent of borrowers who started repaying loans in 2009 were in default by the end of last year. In comparison, 7 percent of students who started repaying in 2008 were in default by the end of 2009. Debbie Cochrane, program director at the Institute for College Access and Success, says the problem is more severe than these figures suggest.

The federal college student loan program is in need of reform, say 258 of 299 callers to SUNDIAL (86 percent). Forty-one callers (13 percent) think not.A congressional proposal to have colleges lend the money and have the Internal Revenue Service collect the payments goes too far, say 144 of 293 callers (49 percent), while 149 callers (50 percent) say it does not go too far.

College students from across the country are back in school. Many of them cannot afford the sky-high cost of college without loans. As a result, countless students are going to spend decades after they graduate paying off enormous debts to student loan companies. Just as the right degree presents a student with new opportunities, the wrong loan harmfully restricts where their education can take them. With the stakes so high, we need to make sure every student can easily choose the loan that is right for him or her, and is protected by his or her school and the government from unfair lending deals.

The idea of politicians tinkering with billions of dollars in the student loan program can make anyone a bit wary. But this time they got it right, with students coming out the winner in legislation passed recently by Congress and to be signed by the president. The law will cut nearly $21 billion in government subsidies to lenders over the next five years. Almost all the money will be plowed back into grants for the poorest students, lower interest rates and loan forgiveness for those in careers that society values but nevertheless underpays.

If you have a college student in the family - or an interest in presidential politics - by now you've probably heard that the interest rates on Stafford student loans are set to double on July 1 unless Congress takes action. President Barack Obama has been touring college campuses this week asking that rates be held to 3.4 percent. As one might imagine, this is a message that has some traction with young voters, a crucial bloc for Democrats, and the reception at places like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Colorado at Boulder, where the president has taken his message, has been warm and welcoming.

Just as parents and their high school seniors are about to sign those college acceptance letters, there is news that unless Congress acts by July 1, the interest rate on federal student loans will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. President Barack Obama has been touring college campuses (in swing states) and chatting up Jimmy Fallon to show his support for keeping interest rates on new loans low, and he talks about "the mountain of debt" he and his wife were under after law school.

Student loan debt is a ticking time bomb, many are warning. In the U.S., it's reached $870 billion -- more than credit cards and auto loans. In February, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys referred to a "student loan 'debt bomb'" and wondered if it was shaping up to become "America's next mortgage-style economic crisis," according to this Chicago Tribune story . College grads are having a hard time finding a...

We physicians are not a trade union ("Got a better plan for reducing Medicare costs?" April 5). We have a monopoly on an essential service. As such, we are not permitted to unionize without violating antitrust laws. However, medical practice is voluntary. If pay does not cover costs, especially of massive student loan payback and practice startup costs, there will be less and less access to care. Marylanders should contact their legislators about real tort reform if they expect any reduction in their Medicare costs, as elderly patients and their families expect prompt diagnosis, timely treatment and excellent outcomes regardless of age or prior severe illness.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it now wants to hear from borrowers who have had problems with their private student loans. The CFPB has oversight on these loans and even has a ombudsman who is supposed to help borrowers and review complaints. Students typically take out private loans once they have exhausted their federal loan options. Federal loans - which should be a student's first choice if they need to borrow - offer some friendly terms, particularly if a new grad can't land a job. In fact, you can have your federal debt wiped out if you work in certain fields after graduation.

Megan Connors of Harford County says she got a great education at Auburn University but a brutal lesson on private student loans. Federal aid wasn't enough to cover four years at the Alabama school, so Connors made up the difference with private loans. Now, four years after graduation and working at a job far afield from her major, the prekindergarten teacher struggles to repay about $101,000 in private loans. "If I knew I would be in this much debt, I probably wouldn't have pursued a four-year degree," says the 30-year-old, whose retired parents help with the loan payments.

WASHINGTON -- The nation's most notorious student loan maker, the Bank of Horton in rural northeast Kansas, failed yesterday and was closed, but not before its bad loans cost taxpayers $250 million.In the late 1980s, the bank in Horton, population 2,177, was the country's second-largest originator of government-guaranteed student loans. Many of those loans were funneled to questionable trade schools and fly-by-night academies, forcing taxpayers to swallow huge losses when students didn't repay the money.

Recently, lawmakers and the media have focused on potentially improper relationships between student financial aid administrators and certain lenders, even going so far as to propose eliminating the position in college student aid offices. These proposed measures could have harmful, unintended consequences for students and parents attempting to finance higher learning. Without an objective third party, consumers would be more prone to manipulation by direct-to-consumer marketing by unscrupulous lenders.

Now it's Newt's turn. Having risen to the top in some opinion polls, the former speaker of the House is taking heat for large consulting fees paid to him by the government-sponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac for wisdom a New York Times editorial said was so simplistic it might have come from a fortune cookie. As Republican presidential candidates rise only to fall when their imperfections are brought to light, Republican voters risk disappointment in 2012 by playing the left's game on their turf and by their rules.

The time of year for SAT scores and college visits is upon us, and high school seniors everywhere are trying to find a college they like that will have them. News last week that college loan debt reached an all-time high for 2010 graduates - an average of $25,250 - makes the most important question in this process not "Where will I go?" but "How will I pay for it?" Or, perhaps, who will pay for it. I was the first in my family to go to college, and among the first to pay for it with federally guaranteed student loans.