USA Funds Releases Guide to Student Loan Issues

USA Funds^® has released an updated edition of its Guide to Student Loan Issues, a briefing paper on the critical trends and policy issues surrounding federal student-loan issues.

Designed to provide objective background information for federal policy-makers and others, USA Funds’ Guide to Student Loan Issues reviews the evolution of federal and private student loans with emphasis on program history, trends, loan terms and costs as well as selected policy issues. The paper offers perspective on some of the current critical issues surrounding federal student loans, including the federal budgetary costs of student-loan programs.

To provide a more-comprehensive perspective on borrowing, this edition also discusses the rationale for student aid, summarizes the latest research on student-loan indebtedness and highlights key postsecondary-education statistics.

Appendices provide complementary information about federal student-loan basics, the involvement of the U.S. Department of Education in student loans, the 2001 federal “market mechanisms” study, advances in student-loan servicing, education-lender finances and the role of student-loan guarantors.

“We offer this briefing paper as an objective resource to inform current policy discussions surrounding federal student-loan programs,” said Terry Muilenburg, USA Funds senior vice president, government relations.

Download a copy of Guide to Student Loan Issues (947 Kb). You’ll need Adobe Reader to view and print the document.