tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31670799.post1142861286684840192..comments2023-11-02T09:44:15.693-04:00Comments on The Center for College Affordability and Productivity: Concerns about the New Income Based Repayment planCenter for College Affordability and Productivityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18041956958538598371noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31670799.post-4894408346379014152009-07-03T02:14:23.400-04:002009-07-03T02:14:23.400-04:00The semantics of the Department of Education's...The semantics of the Department of Education's new <a href="http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/IBRPlan.jsp" rel="nofollow">Income-Based Repayment (IBR)</a> plan are also quite fascinating. Calling it a "repayment plan" appears to be nothing but double talk. Wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a "non-repayment plan", insofar as the principle intent of the plan seems to be to provide options for full or partial non-repayment of excessive student loan borrowing. If so, calling it a "repayment plan" seems to be nothing but a clever marketing tool.<br /><br />Also, given that this program may cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, one wonders about the legality of the process for establishing this policy. Does the Department of Education have the authority to assume these liabilities unilaterally, or was there some sort of vetting process by Congress, etc. I don't know the answer to this question, but I'm curious as to how this was done.<br /><br />Also, I've read that in Europe they use Income Based Repayment plans, but I think in general the European system of higher education, especially at the graduate level, has traditionally avoided some of the irrational excesses we have here in the States. If so, IBR as practised in Europe might be inherently less risky. Again, I don't know the answer but one wonders how the US and EU approaches to IBR might differ, or what could be learned from the European experience in this regard.Ken D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/06316636831644972976noreply@blogger.com