Legislature looks at helping with your student loans

CARSON CITY — Senate Minority Leader Aaron Ford delivered some encouraging news to university and college students visiting the Legislature on Monday: He soon will introduce a bill that would establish a new state-run program to refinance their student loans and reduce their payments.

Ford, D-Las Vegas, talked about his Student Loan Relief Act, which will be introduced in the next few days, with the visiting students who came from around the state to lobby lawmakers on issues.

In a roundtable in his office that included Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, issues included the need to fully fund the Board of Regents’ request to move forward with a medical school at UNLV, opposition to a campus-carry gun bill and support for proposed legislative changes to the Millennium Scholarship program.

Ford also outlined the details of his proposal, which includes provisions to bring transparency to the student loan process.

Research shows that there are about 40 million student loan borrowers nationwide and they carry about $1.2 trillion worth of debt, he said. He called the default rate astronomical at 13.7 percent.

In Nevada, there are 262,000 people with student loan debt that totals about $6.2 billion, Ford said.

“So we think that this bill we are proposing can assist in making certain that universities present a mountain of opportunity to you and not a mountain of debt,” he said.

Ford’s bill would establish the refinancing program through the Department of Business and Industry, which would sell revenue bonds to pay for the refinancing program. Details, including the amount of funding that could be made available, are still being worked out, Ford said.

The bill would create an online database of information about student loan interest rates and repayment policies of private lending institutions and rank them; require every college and university to provide detailed information about the cost of attending and the amount of debt that would be required to earn a degree; and provide borrower information about the consequences of taking out a student loan.

Ford, who has five higher education degrees, said he is one of those Nevadans who is still repaying his student loans.

Alex Velto, a member of UNLV’s student government, asked if the issue of co-signers could be addressed with student loans. Some students have difficulty obtaining loans because of the frequent requirement to have a co-signer, he said.

UNLV student Caleb Green said he loved the refinancing idea and asked for statistics he could provide to students that would show them the potential benefits, persuading them to lobby for the bill.

UNLV student government President Elias Benjelloun asked if efforts could be made to lock in tuition rates for a four-year period so that students would have a better idea of how much their degrees will cost.

Tuition rates have skyrocketed since he was a freshman, Benjelloun said.

A four-year cost guarantee would also encourage students to graduate in four years, he said.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900. Find him on Twitter: @seanw801