ABA concerned about student debt and the value proposition of law school
Yesterday, ABA President Zack responded to a letter from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer urging law schools to disclose more information about the costs and benefits of a legal education. Mark Hansen of ABA Journal reports that President Zack said nobody is more concerned about the future of the legal profession and the value of a legal education than the ABA. "No one could be more focused on the future of our next generation of lawyers than the ABA and the legal profession for whom we speak," Zack wrote in a response to Senator Boxer.…
Department of Education Prepares to Verify Qualifying Public Service Employment!
Happy Day! The Department of Education today published in the Federal Register an Employment Certification for Public Service Loan Forgiveness form. And the Department of Education will verify that employers qualify as public service organizations! Fantastic! We’ve been trying to get his to happen since the day the College Cost Reduction and Access Act passed, more than 4 years ago. There’s more! The Department of Education will review the forms that are submitted, will verify qualifying employment AND…
Paying interest on a student loan and still haven’t filed your tax return?
You can reduce your taxable income by the amount of student loan interest you paid in 2010, up to $2,500. That’s true even if you don’t itemize deductions. Unfortunately, married folks have to file joint tax returns to take the student loan interest deduction, and some married people will want to file separately in order to separate their incomes for figuring Income-Based Repayment. Figure your deduction using the Student Loan Interest Deduction Worksheet. Your lender (a bank or the government) should have sent you a Form…
Early Look at College Net Price Calculators Finds Mixed Results
By the end of October, colleges must create online calculators to help prospective students judge college costs. The price of tuition doesn’t tell students everything they need to know about cost. Students are also responsible for fees, books, food and housing, and transportation costs. Also, some high-tuition schools offer generous grants and scholarships. The new “net price calculators” can help students understand which schools they can afford. A report by the Institute for College Access…
Are student loan borrowers effectively managing their student loan debt?
Many more student loan borrowers are having difficulty repaying their student loans than is generally recognized. The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) studied data on 8.7 million student loan borrowers and 27.5 million student loans, focusing on the 1.8 million borrowers who entered repayment in 2005 and issued an illuminating report: Delinquency: The Untold Story of Student Loan Borrowing. Student Loan Default Rates Don’t Tell the Whole Story Default rates only tell us so much. Deferment and forbearance allow borrowers to…
