Education chair to White House: Turn over student loan records

Citing "serious oversight failures" by White House officials, the Democratic head of the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee has demanded that the administration turn over a number of records relating to its federal loans programs, Reuters news service reports today.

In addition to asking for general emails relating to the program, Democratic Representative George Miller of California requested emails directly from current Education Secretary Margeret Spellings and former Education Secretary Rodney Paige.

"Congress and state attorneys general are probing allegations of misconduct across the student loan industry. Investigators accuse some college financial aid officers of taking payments and perks from lenders in exchange for placing the companies on 'preferred lender' lists shown to students," Reuters reported on Tuesday.

"We believe that the 'preferred lender' list system is broken and needs fixing. It no longer serves the interests of students and their families," said a spokesperson from Student Lending Works, an Ohio nonprofit lender that has been left off all but 12 of 100 such lists.

"As the inquiry has progressed, lenders including Citigroup Inc., Sallie Mae, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. have agreed to a code of conduct recommended by Cuomo banning school-lender financial ties, 'preferred lender' list payments and lender gifts to college employees."

Spellings is scheduled to testify on May 10 before Miller's House Education and Labor Committee.



