Two Democratic senators are pushing to prevent lenders from discriminating against students at smaller, less-known college. Washington State’s Patty Murray and Chris Dodd of Connecticut think that lenders are getting too picky about which students they give loans to, and passing over the students at community colleges, among others, because the schools aren’t high on the prestige list. A new bill that’s been introduced by the two senators is designed to end discrimination in lending that’s done under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). The FFELP program covers Stafford Loans, PLUS Loans and Federal Consolidation Loans, all of which offer a chance for students to borrow money for their education at below-market rates. Although the money is lent to students by private banks and companies, it is almost entirely guaranteed by the federal government. Because Uncle Sam is taking all the risk away from the private lenders by guaranteeing these loans, Dodd and Murray want to make sure loans are made equally available to all, even in an economic environment where lenders are pulling back on just about all types of lending, including student ad. Read more on this at Senator Patty Murray’s website

Here’s an important list for those of you who are saving money to put your kids through college or possibly socking away some dough to pay for your own continuing education. 529 plans are being pushed by many investment advisors as a good way to save tax-sheltered money for a kid’s college education. But I’ve learned from direct experience (I have a 529 plan for my younger son) that buying these investments is tricky. Each state has its own 529 plan, and you are not required to invest in your own state’s plan. Because state politicians choose who will run 529 investment plans, there’s a huge variation in quality of the plans from state to state. It’s important to shop around. If you’re in the market for a 529 plan, take a good look at Morningstar’s latest list of best and worst college 529 savings plans.
Also, here is a series of good articles on paying for your online college degree.

The economy is weak, and states are finding themselves with less tax income to fund higher education from. Will the federal government step in to help? Of course! Congress is getting ready to do the same thing it did with “No Child Left Behind”: order the states to keep funding higher education, and not provide them with the financial backing to do so. Numerous governors are up in arms over a bill close to passage in The House and The Senate that will withdraw federal funding from states if they don’t maintain the same funding for higher education they’ve had over the past five years – regardless of how much money the states are now taking in from taxpayers. Read More

Unfortunately, at this point a good deal. After burning through the mortgage, auto loan and credit card markets, the national credit squeeze is starting to have a serious effect on student loans. The government is getting nervous about backing up banks and loan associations who give Stafford loans, which is making the lenders alot tougher on students who need money to pay their tuition costs. Here’s an overview of the tough times in the student loan market.

I leave it to you to judge whether or not high school students pushing themselves to take tons of “AP” courses to boost their college admission chances is a good thing or not. However, it seems pretty clear that there’s no reason they shouldn’t have all of the same advanced learning opportunities as kids in brick and mortar high schools. That’s been a problem, because there’s an expectation that AP courses should be the highest quality courses offered, and lots of teachers have felt a little uncomfortable about trying to deliver that quality via elearning. Here’s an interesting article by a teacher who as found a portal application called WiZiO and made some lower-tech tweaks to the way his students work that have made his AP courses work beautifully. Read more about high school online advanced placement courses.

Education loans, for online or offline schools, are apparently a bigger problem for women to pay off than men. According to Britain’s The Guardian, most women college graduates in that county take 16 years to pay off their school loans, compared to an average of 11 years for men. A key reason for the long payoff time is that women make less money, due to a combination of outright wage discrimination and to the fact that they take time off to care for children. One British politician called it further evidence of the “raw deal in the labour market” that women get in general.
More on women and education loans here .

Individual graduates get a benefit from a college degree, but a new study by a respected academic argues that much of the money being given to colleges and universities today is creating zero return. Part of the problem is that colleges gain prestige by limiting who they accept - which means that more funding does not encourage them to accept more students and create new graduates. States that have spent more and more on higher education seem to be getting little benefit economically. The author of the study has some radical ideas on how to change the situation. Read More

Last year, NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo raised a stink about under-the-table gifts from student loan companies to college financial aid offices. Now the schools are afraid of seeming too close to any lenders. But the billion dollar student loan business is too big to resist, so this year, there’s an explosion of lenders who want to bypass the schools and market loans directly to students. TV ads by MyRichUncle and others now hawk “easy” loans of tens of thousands of dollars to students. One of them, LendingTree.com, has attracted new scrutiny from the young Mr. Cuomo, who says that the company’s pitch that it lets multiple banks compete for your business isn’t quite truthful, and that it’s really pushing all applicants to a single lender. There are several new websites starting up that claim to provide students with honest, unbiased information on where they can get the best loans to pay for college, but so far it looks like most of them are just a shady as the lenders they’re covering.
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college loans

Education should make you smarter, not poorer, right? Here’s a very smart blog by a writer who looks in a very in-depth way at not just how you can fund your higher education, but how you can do it without creating unnecessary tax burdens for yourself. This information is great, regardless of whether you’re studying online, in a traditional class environment, or looking to fund your kid’s education.
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paying for college

e-Learning Pundit is a good site about all the various aspects of online learning. One of their articles can take some of the work out of your process of choosing an online school. Their writer spent some time looking around the websites of major online business schools and public universities, and came up with this great list of prices being charged for credit hours, total tuition, individual courses and more.
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