Public Purpose

Today, federal aid for college consists primarily of loans. Therefore, American Student Assistance believes there should be federal assistance for students when it comes time to repay their loans. We believe that federally funded guarantors are the best-suited to take on this public purpose mission of helping students and families successfully manage their higher education debt.

Closing the information gap

How can we help students and families successfully manage their higher education debt? By giving them the right information at the right time. A critical student loan information gap exists today. In fact, many borrowers fall behind on their student loan simply because they didn’t know they had the option to lower or temporarily postpone their monthly payments. Working together with the Department of Education, higher education institutions, education lenders and community partners, guarantors can provide borrowers with debt management services, like one-on-one repayment counseling, financial literacy education and proactive outreach. So borrowers can avoid payment problems before they even begin.

Community resource

Educating students and parents once they’ve already borrowed for higher education is just one aspect of our public purpose. We’re reaching out to the communities we serve to increase early awareness of higher education opportunities, education financing, and overall financial literacy. We continue to work with federal and local government agencies to further the country’s education access and success goals. And we’re also supporting higher education institutions, with free training, operational support and student debt management assistance for financial aid professionals nationwide.