Today is your last chance to complete NASFAA's Rapid Response Survey on proposed changes to the Federal Perkins Loan Program under the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R. 3221).
The bill would replace the current Federal Perkins Loan Program with a new Federal Direct Perkins Loan Program. Because this legislation could have implications for all schools receiving Title IV funding -- even those that do not currently participate in the Perkins program -- we are asking primary contacts at all member institutions to complete and return the survey by today. The survey should take no more than 5 minutes to finish and your responses are critical in helping NASFAA formulate our response to the Perkins issues raised in the bill.
NASFAA can only accept a survey response from the member designated by the school as its primary contact with NASFAA (i.e., the person who received the survey via email from NASFAA) using the link provided in the email. Primary contacts are encouraged, however, to consult with any staff members who are knowledgeable on the survey topic before submitting the survey.
NASFAA detailed this and other H.R. 3221 proposals in a July 17, 2009, Today's News article. H.R. 3221 would replace the existing Perkins Loan with the Direct Perkins Loan, which would operate in much the same way as unsubsidized Stafford loans. Schools would lose their Administrative Cost Allowance and the loans would be serviced by the Department of Education. The Direct Perkins Loan would carry no interest subsidy for borrowers, would carry an interest rate of 5 percent, and would generally lack the loan forgiveness provisions currently available to Perkins Loan borrowers. The bill would allocate $6 billion annually towards the program beginning in the 2010-11 award year, which could drastically increase its usage over the current Perkins Loan program. The new program may also help deter students from using costlier private student loans, according to the Obama administration.
Please complete the survey today so that your views may be considered in the final results.
Posted 08/07/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.
