Loan programs

As Congress weighs price-based auction, lenders and industry critics debate whether the approach would help or hurt students.

Like most of the revelations and allegations that have poured out of Andrew M. Cuomo's office in the New York attorney general's investigation into the student loan industry, his latest is provocative and highly charged. Two weeks ago, in a powerfully worded letter to Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), Cuomo accused some providers of private student loans with engaging in the kind of racial discrimination that home mortgage lenders once practiced.

Few colleges include alternative loans in students' aid packages, but marketing is common, survey by aid officers' group finds.

Barnard effort suggests colleges may be able to dissuade students from risky, growing and controversial form of borrowing.

Responding to scandal, U. of North Carolina tells all campuses to list at least 3 lenders. That's unfair to colleges in direct lending, advocates say.

With backers of budget bill framing choice starkly, lawmakers reject measure that would have softened cuts to loan providers.

Board members, some with strong ties to higher ed, will share $370 million in profit in sale of student loan behemoth.

Education secretary, portraying department as acting aggressively, says colleges and lenders should adopt principles and not wait for new rules or laws.

Scores of colleges, lenders and others comment on proposals to change U.S. rules governing student loan programs and college-lender relationships.

New state law and pending federal rules would have barred the organization from being a lender while also reimbursing college officials who attend its meetings.