Under the College Housing Loan Program, the Education Department lends money to colleges to build and refurbish dormitories and other student facilities. Problems plaguing the loan program are discussed. Both colleges and the federal government have broken most of the rules governing the program. (MLW)

Colleges and universities will be held directly responsible for loan repayments by their former students. Most postsecondary institutions with default rates of more than 20% are for-profit trade schools, community colleges, or historically Black colleges. (MLW)

Officials on 10 campuses that are testing the new income contingent loans say that borrowers don't understand how it works, and they predict that students would not like the new loans because the interest rates are so high that it could take a life-time to pay the money back. (MLW)

Concern about problems that inflexible educational loan payments cause for some people has reopened the idea of income-contingent repayment schedules, but financial aid experts see insurmountable problems in stretching out loans indefinitely, increasing indebtedness by slowing down payments, overall inequities favoring high-income borrowers, and…