The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which passed just one year ago, contained new requirements for student loan guarantors to provide financial literacy programs. Many but not most guarantor agencies have been offering some sort of financial literacy help for students, varying widely in approach and effectiveness: for some, it's a 3-fold brochure in the financial aid office, for others, it's a student rally, for still others, it's a website from which financial aid counselors can download documents.

Such as they are, many campus-based financial literacy programs will soon be obviated by the dissolution of the FFELP, as the government takes over Direct Student Loans.

 The recent release of the rising default rates on student loans barely hint at what's really coming, and not just because the latest available data are two years behind. For one thing, in 2007 the distant thunder of the approaching economic storm was barely audible.  For another, Congress has since improved how the default rate is calculated; it now counts the number of borrowers in repayment for 3 years, not 2. This is a much more accurate picture of defaults, and a MUCH higher number, but this formula doesn't apply until 2008 data.