The top official at the federal Office of Financial Aid recently resigned after butting heads with new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her plan to make sweeping changes to federal student loan programs. Now DeVos has announced a replacement who is more likely to follow her lead: Dr. A. Wayne Johnson, the CEO of a private, for-profit student loan company. [More]
federal financial aid
FAFSA Tool Vulnerability May Have Exposed 100K Individuals’ Personal Info
By 4.7.17
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is a bit cumbersome, so the Department of Education tried to ease that burden by creating a tool that automatically filled in an applicant’s previous year’s tax information. That tool was suddenly taken offline last month over concerns about data security, and now we have some idea of how many applicants may have had their information exposed. [More]
DeVry University Must Stop Claiming That 90% Of Grads Get Jobs
By 10.14.16
Many for-profit college chains recruited students through ads touting exceedingly high job-placement rates, but as we’ve seen from the recent collapses of chains like Corinthian Colleges Inc. and ITT Tech, those placement statistics can be artificially inflated. This week, for-profit educator DeVry Education Group agreed to be more honest and transparent about the job-placement claims in its ads and recruitment materials. [More]
Student Loan Default Rates Decline, But A Record Number Of Borrowers Are In Default
By 9.29.16
While the number of borrowers defaulting on their federal student loans didn’t increase this year, the number of consumers who remain in default hasn’t really change either, creating a stand-still of sorts. [More]
ITT Tech Banned From Enrolling New Students Using Federal Financial Aid
By 8.25.16
And just like that the foundation of ITT Education Services is beginning to crumble. Today, the Department of Education took a series of actions that bans the company behind the for-profit chain of ITT Technical Institutes from enrolling new students using federal financial aid funds. [More]
Prisoners Will Soon Be Eligible For Pell Grants To Finance Education
By 7.31.15
Twenty years after passing a law that banned prisoners from financing higher education with federal grants while incarcerated, the government is ready to begin investing in the education of inmates. [More]
FAFSA Twitter Account Sorry For Posting “I’m Poor” Tweet Aimed At Financial Aid Applicants
By 6.25.14
You know what isn’t always that funny to people who can’t afford say, college? Calling them out for being poor on social media. Oh, hello, Federal Student Aid’s twitter account. You seem to have made a mistake in that area. [More]
