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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | August 4, 2016 03:40 PM |
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| From: | Representative W. Curtis Thomas |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Education Loan Disclosure Legislation |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that would require institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth to provide students with education loan disclosures on an annual basis. A recent study reported that the average Pennsylvania graduate in 2014 had a total $33,264 in debt when they finished school. This ranks Pennsylvania 3rd in the country with the highest amount of average debt per student. In addition, Pennsylvania ranks 3rd with 70% of all graduates with debt. The total student loan debt in America recently surpassed $1.3 trillion. This legislation would require institutions of higher education to send out annual education loan disclosures. These disclosures would include total education loans, standard repayment terms, assumed interest rates and calculated amounts for a monthly payment. The loan information will include all federal loan data and also private loan data if the institution has that data available to them. Due to privacy concerns, these disclosures would only include information on loans that are signed for by the student. These disclosure will not include loans taken out by parents or guardians such as the parent PLUS loan or any other type of educational loans that are for the student but not signed for by the student. Make no mistake about it, student loan debt is a crisis in our economy that has an effect on everyone from the students, who have the debt, to small business on Main Street because recent college graduates are having to make huge payments on loan debt. Education loan disclosures is a step in the right direction to helping to cure this crisis. These disclosures would put students on a better path to financial literacy by helping them understand the current debt that they have and how they can set themselves up for financial success in life. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation. |
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Introduced as HB2285