Important Default Rate Truths � The Quick and the Ed

Important Default Rate Truths � The Quick and the Ed

Important Default Rate Truths

by Ben Miller

I can’t recommend enough Kelly Field’s excellent piece on the front of this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education about the true story of long-term default rates (and not just because Erin and Robin’s report on this topic gets a mention). What Field turns up isn’t pretty:

According to unpublished data obtained by The Chronicle, one in every five government loans that entered repayment in 1995 has gone into default. The default rate is higher for loans made to students from two-year colleges, and higher still, reaching 40 percent, for those who attended for-profit institutions.

We’ve known from other Department documents that default rates were always higher than expected, but to see

QUICK Hits

by Forrest Hinton

Quick Hits is a short compilation of question-raising news stories, blog posts, and video clips that Education Sector team members are reading and viewing each day.

• What’s the biggest policy initiative being taken up by the National Governor’s Association this year?(Inside Higher Ed)
• Ever wonder where Copernicum got its name? Yeah, well, we didn’t either—but if you did. . . (Slate)
• AFT vs. NEA: How are the nation’s two largest teachers unions responding to RTT and competitive grants? (Teacher Beat)
• Where’s the one place the NEA would welcome Teach for America? (EdIntercepts)
• Orangutan’s best friend? (ABC 7 Los Angeles)