Student Loans - California Student Aid Commission To Appeal Against Guarantee Program Termination

The California Student Aid Commission, which is the principal state agency responsible for administering financial aid programs for students attending public and private universities, colleges, and vocational schools in California, convened recently in order to discuss and formulate a response to the United States Department of Education’s decision to terminate the Commission’s student loan guarantee program agreement.

The California Student Aid Commission, which is set to distribute over $1 billion to California’s college students during the 2009-10 academic year through its Cal Grant, specialized and loan forgiveness programs, decided to appeal this decision of the United States Department of Education during the meeting, and the Commission Chair, Barry Keene, issued the following statement regarding the matter:

“In order to protect the current and future students of California, the Commission, by a majority vote, has taken decisive action to appeal the U.S. Department of Education’s decision to terminate the California Student Aid Commission’s guaranty agreement.

This action by the U.S. Department of Education puts at risk financial aid to 330,000 California students and disrupts services that support the Cal Grant program and the other specialized federal and state financial aid programs administered by the Commission.

Our goal is to ensure that maximum funding remains available to the state of California to support the Cal Grant program and that California and its students’ future are not jeopardized. Recently, the Legislative Leadership expressed its serious concerns about the action taken by the U.S. Department of Education; we the Commission, as the guaranty agency, ask that the U.S. Department of Education’s action be rescinded in order to protect the interests of the students of California.”