Washington, DC -- Today the New America Foundation's Education Policy Program released an issue brief on Department of Education programs designed to ensure federal student loan availability during credit market disruptions. The paper, "Student Loan Purchase Programs Under the Ensuring Continued Student Loan Availability Act of 2008," by the program's Research Director, Jason Delisle, serves as a primer on these recently enacted policies.

Last year the Congress passed legislation -- the Ensuring Continued Student Loan Availability Act of 2008 (ECASLA) -- that gives the Department of Education the authority to purchase federally backed student loans made by private lenders. The law gives considerable flexibility to the Department in designing and implementing the purchase programs. To date, the Department has designed four separate programs.

"The loan purchase programs under ECASLA are complicated and were enacted quickly and with little public discussion in response to unprecedented financial market conditions," said Delisle. "It's important that policymakers, the media and the public understand this new and evolving approach to student loan policy."

The report includes the following:

• Information on the effects of credit market disruptions on federal student loan availability and the adoption of the Ensuring Continued Student Loan Availability Act of 2008;
• A detailed description and explanation of each of the four loan purchase programs designed and implemented by the Department of Education under ECASLA; 
• Tables and graphics depicting each of the programs; and
• The report will be updated as new information becomes available.

The full report is available at NewAmerica.net.

For more information or to speak to our experts, please contact Erin Drankoski at drankoski@newamerica.net. The following New America Foundation analyst is available to discuss ECASLA:

Jason Delisle, Research Director, Education Policy Program
View Mr. Delisle's bio page at http://www.newamerica.net/people/jason_delisle.

Click here to visit the Education Policy Program homepage at NewAmerica.net.

About New America
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States.  Headquartered in Washington D.C., New America also has offices in California.