Where this was said
Obama Tried to Fix It — and Nearly Killed HBCUs
At 25:48 · chapter starts 24:30
Lieber recounts the cautionary tale of the Obama administration's reform attempt. In 2011, facing a system that was clearly generating bad outcomes, the administration tightened underwriting standards for the parent PLUS loan program, intending to prevent the most financially precarious borrowers from taking on debt they couldn't repay. Within a year or two, however, it became clear that the reform had a devastating side effect: a number of historically Black colleges and universities were on the verge of going out of business. Their student bodies disproportionately depended on the parent PLUS loan program, and once those students lost eligibility, they could no longer afford to attend. The administration faced an impossible choice and by 2014 had essentially reversed course, restoring the looser standards it had sought to eliminate. [1] — Ron Lieber "The Obama administration tightened student loan underwriting in 2011, intending to weed out risky borrowers. Within a year or two, some his…" 25:02 The lesson Lieber draws is uncomfortable: the student loan system is so entangled with institutional survival that even well-intentioned reforms carry enormous collateral risk.
The Obama administration tightened student loan underwriting in 2011, intending to weed out risky borrowers. Within a year or two, some historically Black colleges and universities were on the verge of closing, because their students disproportionately depended on the parent PLUS loan program. The changes were reversed by 2014.
When the Obama administration tightened loan underwriting, some historically Black colleges and universities came close to shutting down because their students heavily relied on the parent PLUS loan program.
