Upbeat Assessment of Direct Student Loan Program Capacity

The U.S. Education Department's inspector general issued a generally positive assessment last week of the department's ability to help colleges make the transition to the government's direct student loan program. The report found that the department's Federal Student Aid office expanded its capacity sufficiently as the competing Federal Family Education Loan Program struggled last year and that the department "appears to have access to sufficient resources to assist schools with the transition to the Direct Loan program" going forward. The audit report says that the department will lean heavily on contractors during the transition, though, and that the department will have to monitor the situation closely "to reduce related performance risk."