Loan programs

When colleges' borrowers are tracked three years into repayment instead of two, the rates at which they default on student loans rise by 75 percent. Many more risk penalties.

Panel balks at Education Department's draft rule introducing a loan-to-income ratio targeting high-priced, low-payoff programs.

Study of how historically black colleges eased their student loan problems a decade ago has relevance for for-profit and other institutions facing a similar challenge now, its authors say.

Democrats' plan to consider health care legislation through "budget reconciliation" process has implications for student loan reform -- not all of them good.

Lack of agreement over access to U.S. database of workers has impaired Education Department's ability to collect money from defaulted borrowers.

Compromise legislation, clearing several key hurdles, would provide billions for Pell Grants, minority institutions -- and, in a late reversal, community colleges.

Overshadowed by health care, legislation to end lender-based federal loans and use savings to shore up grants for needy students nears final approval.

Maybe we can all get along.

WASHINGTON -- Like many pieces of major legislation, the financial reform measure on which Congressional negotiators reached final agreement late last week satisfies no one entirely.

As policy debate rages about for-profit colleges' value, their enrollments continue to soar, nearing 12 percent of all students.