Federal Student Loans: Education Could Better Coordinate with Servicers When Making Program Changes

Filed 1w ago · Via GAO · The Buffoon Desk

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The Entertainer

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Laima Gūtmane (simka… · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

GAO found the Department of Education's loan servicers repeatedly struggled to implement program changes due to unclear upfront instructions, with one change request requiring six rounds of clarifying questions over two months.

All four servicers said early coordination — meeting before or right after a change request — would help, and three said it lets them respond faster.

Education acknowledged the value but has no formal criteria for when to coordinate early, calling it a matter of staff discretion; the agency rejected GAO's recommendation to formalize criteria, citing a need for flexibility.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Refusing to write down when you'll talk to your own contractors, then citing flexibility as the reason, is a tidy way of preserving the right to be disorganized on purpose. The borrowers waiting on $1.6 trillion in loans to be administered correctly might prefer less flexibility and more competence.

Source: Read the original at GAO → Scored: The Entertainer · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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