Obama to unveil student loan tweaks
WASHINGTON — More than 40 million Americans are in debt thanks to their education, and most of their loans come from Uncle Sam. So President Barack Obama is aiming to clamp down on the private companies that service federal student debt with a presidential memorandum he will issue today.
Obama’s policy tweaks, to be unveiled during a speech at Georgia Tech, don’t require new legislation from Congress — a plus as far as the White House is concerned. But they won’t be earth-shattering for student-borrowers, either. Instead, the new steps seek to tilt the student lending process more toward the borrowers, with a particular focus on graduates struggling to make their monthly payments.
Obama’s memorandum targets third parties like Sallie Mae/Navient that contract with the government to collect on federal student debt. Those companies will be required to better inform borrowers about their repayment options and notify them when they are delinquent.
The president is also instructing the government to create a website where students can see all their federal loans in one place — a major problem for students with multiple loans, as well as those whose loans have been sold by one lender to another. He’s also asking for a single website where borrowers can file complaints about loan servicers, in an apparent recognition that customer service for student borrowers has been a major problem in the past.
