Washington, D.C. — Today, President Barack Obama plans to announce the Student Aid Bill of Rights, a set of executive actions and proposals aimed to make the student-loan repayment process better for borrowers.
David Bergeron, Vice President for Postsecondary Education at the Center for American Progress, released the following statement in response:
Affordable, quality education should remain within reach for all Americans, and President Obama’s Student Bill of Rights is a significant step toward achieving that goal. It pulls into one place a set of reforms that will ensure that the federal aid system will work for the students of today and tomorrow.
Anne Johnson, Executive Director of Generation Progress, also released the following statement:
For too long, borrowers who have tried to keep up their loan payments have struggled when servicers don’t work with them to do so. Common-sense requirements—including better communication standards from servicers to borrowers and applying prepayments to loans with the highest interest rate—are long overdue.
The creation of a centralized complaints system will help ensure that the voices of students are heard when servicers, lenders, and debt collectors are not responsive to their needs or the law. The centralized complaints system will also help ensure that the Department of Education hears first-hand from students who are too often taken advantage of by for-profit institutions that are more interested in federal aid dollars than educating our country.
We applaud the president for his announcement and look forward to working with the administration and Congress to ensure the needs of students and borrowers are met now and in the future.
Maggie Thompson, Campaign Manager for Higher Ed Not Debt, also released the following statement:
We applaud the president’s action to create a Bill of Rights for students and borrowers. Every American deserves access to the resources to pay for college, an affordable loan repayment program, and reliable information about their loans. Students pay a high price for a higher-education system that tolerates colleges and loan servicers that profit off of federal education dollars. Today’s announcement outlines the initial steps that the administration and Congress must take to better protect student loan borrowers.