CSLF Connects

This video, produced by Utah's non-profit Board of Regents' http://www.uheaa.org, illustrates how obvious it is that big government solutions to problems leave little room for individual or even school-specific needs in the student loan program. For more information, please see http://cslf.wordpress.com and http://keepstudentloanslocal.org for more information.

From the Frying Pan and Into the Fire?

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Carolyn Karno, Manager of Early Awareness & College Planning at the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation, speaks on the problems with eliminating the Federal Family Education Loan program, as suggested under the Obama administration's changes.

Carolyn discusses how the high-volume end-users, the schools, had the highest exposure to the deficits and limitations of the Direct Loan program, and how after some experimentation with DL, most schools switched back to FFELP. "That should tell you something, " says Karno. She also addresses what President Obama suggests as the primary driver for the elimination of FFELP - cost savings to be put toward the expansion of the Pell Grant program. "It will come, most likely at the cost to the consumer." Karno goes on to assert that this is "...not necessarily a win-win situation for students," and that public school systems that have traditionally relied on the free services in college planning, financial aid training and early awareness will be at serious loss.

As Karno points out, individual students do not save any money by using the government's Direct Loan program. In addition, when proponents of the Obama administration's plan trumpet potential future savings, they forget to account for the fact that shifting all student loan business to Direct will also increase the national debt and government spending. Every dollar originated for student loans will either have to be borrowed by the Feds or will have to come from The Treasury. Thus, spending on loans for higher education will shift from the private market to consumers, increasing individual tax burden and possibly contributing to later inflation. For more information on preserving student choice, please go to http://www.keepstudentloanslocal.org.

Proposed legislation threatens to set back the accomplishments of non-profit student loan lender/guarantors like the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation.

For over 40 years, CSLF has promoted access to higher education, helped families find financing for college, and assisted high school guidance professionals to shepherd first-generation and under-served populations into programs to help them discover and fulfill their dreams.

Current media coverage has tended to lump together large lenders and banks with smaller, non-profit companies like CSLF. All companies providing student loans have the potential to serve well and provide good products, but small-scale operations like the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation have always realized the real dividends are service, satisfaction and connection.

So here we are -- and this is who we are: mothers, wives, husbands, musicians, mechanics, writers, cyclists, fathers, activists, bakers, readers and crafters.

We live in your town, we're standing in the same long line at the DMV, our kids sit next to each other in school and we all want the same thing: people who really care about our shared future. That's the person who answers the phone when you call CSLF.

Help save the Federal Family Education Loan program: click here for more information and learn how you can lend your voice to the fight for student choice and a solution that can work for us all.

http://www.cslf.com

"I am CSLF and I'm here to help you."

Also see  http://www.keepstudentloanslocal.org