Student Loan Reform Passes

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Yesterday, both the House and Senate passed the budget reconciliation bill (H.R. 4872) that included major student loan reform.

The Senate passed the bill by a 56-43 vote.  Last night, the House passed the bill by a 220-207 vote.

The primary and most controversial higher education component of this bill, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, is the elimination of the Federal Family Educational Loan Program (FFELP).

All federal student lending will be shifted away from FFELP, which provided subsidies to banks for them to provide student loans, to the Direct Loan program.

Here’s an interesting article from Inside Higher Ed discussing the winners and losers from these reforms.  Here’s a good summary of the bill’s student aid provisions in this NASFAA article.