Just the Facts on ECASLA

Over the past year, Congress and the Bush administration have taken some dramatic steps to make sure that student loans through the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program remain widely available despite severe credit market disruptions. At Higher Ed Watch, we have been supportive of some of these efforts and critical of others.

However, one thing is absolutely clear — the loan purchase programs that Congress and the U.S. Department of Education designed under the Ensuring Continued Student Loan Availability Act of 2008 (ECASLA) are complicated. They were enacted quickly and with little public discussion. As a result, few people outside of the Education Department and the student loan industry have any idea of how these plans are supposed to work.

Jason Delisle, the research director of the New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program, has written an issue brief that aims to bring clarity to the debate by providing a detailed explanation of the purchase programs and the role they are designed to play in improving access to student loans.

The report includes information on the effects of credit market disruptions on federal student loan availability and the adoption of ECASLA; a detailed description and explanation of each of the four loan purchase programs designed and implemented by the Department of Education under ECASLA; and tables and graphics depicting each of the programs.

We hope that this report, which will be updated as new information on these programs becomes available, will be a valuable tool for policymakers, the news media, and the public to better understand this new and evolving approach to student loan policy.