Continued Access to Student Loans

On Wednesday, May 7th, President Bush signed into law H.R. 5715 - the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008, which contains many provisions to ensure students and parents can borrow under the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) to help with college expenses for the 2008-09 academic year. Among the provisions, the bill allows the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to serve as a secondary market for FFELP loans, with ED purchasing loans from lenders to generate necessary capital for future FFELP loans.

At last month's Annual Conference of the Illinois Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (ILASFAA), ISAC Executive Director Andy Davis assured attendees that "ISAC will continue to serve the loan needs of our Illinois students". Although we no doubt have made that commitment to the financial aid community on many other occasions throughout our long partnership, this year it carried particular significance due to the environment of uncertainty about the availability of student loans. Andy made the commitment prior to the passage of H.R. 5715, and now that the provisions of the bill are law, ISAC continues to take steps to ensure uninterrupted access to FFELP loans for students and families in Illinois.

Additional information about these topics is available in the e-Library of collegezone.com. An overview of H.R. 5715 can be found in the Federal Information section. Andy's complete remarks made at the 2008 ILASFAA Conference, along with the PowerPoint presentation for the ISAC Update, are available in the Presentations section under Conference Handouts & Presentations.