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According to unpublished data obtained by The Chronicle, one in every five government loans that entered repayment in 1995 has gone into default.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 it laid out in such clear terms is worth the read by itself. But there are three other things about the story (and theaccompanying piece from Goldie Blumenstyk) that are worth highlighting.

Lots of Complexity

Over the past decade or so the Department of Education successfully established a complex and opaque

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.

• How effective are mandatory random drug testing programs on high school students’ drug use?(Institute of Education Sciences)
• Why is charter school governance, which might seem like a snoozer, actually a critical issue? Sara Mead’s take on her new Ed Week blog. (Sara Mead’s Policy Notebook)
• Corporal punishment making a comeback? Not in Memphis at least. (The Commercial Appeal)
• What’s the College and Career Association’s legislative strategy for dealing with increased scrutiny on proprietary schools from Congress? (Higher Ed Watch)