Quoted In: US House passes student loan overhaul (The Christian Science Monitor)

The US House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that will knock private lenders out of the student lending market while beefing up funding for Pell Grants and, the Congressional Budget Office reports, save taxpayers $13.3 billion between 2009 and 2014.

The short deadline and the significant increase in workload for the Department of Education has some worried that schools won’t be able to convert their systems in time, said Justin Draeger, vice president of public policy at NASFAA.

[A] plus, from the universities’ point of view, is that federal Pell Grants, offered to low-income students, will be pegged to the consumer price index plus 1 percent.

“That it’s indexed for consumer price increases ensures that we don’t have to fight the appropriations battle every year,” Mr. Draeger said.

The full article was originally published on Sept. 17, 2009.