Catching Up With ECASLA

The Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (ECASLA) is back in the news. The law, which has helped prop up the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program in the wake of the credit crunch, is set to expire this summer, but some loan industry officials and Republican lawmakers are pushing Congress to extend it for another year. The Obama administration and Democratic Congressional leaders, who have proposed eliminating the FFEL program in favor of 100 percent direct lending, oppose an extension, saying it is unnecessary.

With this debate heating up, we thought it would be a good time to catch up on the ECASLA programs. With that in mind, Jason Delisle, the director of the Federal Education Budget Project at the New America Foundation, has updated an issue brief that our Education Policy Program published in January on the student loan purchase programs put in place under ECASLA. The paper provides a detailed description and explanation of the four loan purchased programs designed and implemented by the Department of Education. The updated version includes the latest data available on the volume of FFEL loans that the program has supported.

We hope that this updated report will be a valuable tool for policymakers, the newsmedia, and the public as the debate over the future of ECASLA and the federal student loan programs heats up in the new year.