"A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit can proceed against a large for-profit education company accused of using improper sales tactics to lure unqualified students and the billions of dollars in financial aid they bring," CBS News reports. "Judge Terrence McVerry said in a ruling Friday that the whole case against Education Management Corp. shouldn't be dismissed."

May 16, 2012 - U.S. News and World Report interviews NASFAA Policy Director Megan McClean about the ongoing political debate over how Congress will offset the cost of maintaining the 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans. "Both Republicans and Democrats have indicated--and publicly--that they do want to see at least a year extension to keep it at 3.4 percent, but the debate now is really how they're going to pay for it," McClean said.

"Colleges and universities are due for a meltdown as students are increasingly saddled with debt they can’t repay, according to Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the HDNet cable-television channel," Bloomberg reports. "Borrowing to pay for higher education is 'the collegiate equivalent of flipping houses,' Cuban wrote two days ago on his blog."

May 16, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal interviews NASFAA Communications Director Haley Chitty in an article about banks expanding to place a stake in student lending. "To be sure, private student loans should be taken only as a funding source of last resort, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators argues."

"The New York Times is currently running a series on student loans, a topic that has been at the forefront of both the media and the general public for some time now," Michigan State University College of Education Dean Donald Heller writes for the school's blog. "The first installment of the Times series ran in a most visible location: above the fold in the Sunday paper (the headline and image above is from the web version of the article). Here’s the article’s lede, which seemingly establishes the case for the headline: 'Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents.'"

"For one thing, that more people are going to college—and graduate school," the Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "The sum is an estimate of all outstanding education debt: private and federal student loans for undergraduates, parents, and graduate and professional-school students."

"Last month, the Bryski family of Marlton won an enormous victory against Key Bank," the Star-Ledger reports. "Christopher Bryski, a Rutgers college student, died in 2006, but his college loans lived on."

"David Coleman, an architect of the common core curriculum standards that are being adopted in nearly all 50 states, will become the president of the College Board, starting in October," the New York Times reports. "The College Board, a membership organization of high schools and colleges that administers the SAT, the Advanced Placement program and other standardized tests, helped design the standards -- an outline of what students should learn in English and math from kindergarten through high school -- meant to ensure that all high school graduates are prepared for college."

"In the United States we have always cherished our ability to improve ourselves and move up the socio-economic ladder based on our efforts," Florida International University President Mark B. Rosenberg writes to the Miami Herald in a Letter to the Editor. "In fact, we have been called the land of opportunity — and for good reason."

"What should worry us more than the national student debt load — which is still not well understood because the data are so murky — is the likelihood that particular categories of students are getting a bad deal," Andrew Rotherham, co-founder and partner at the nonprofit Bellwether Education, writes for TIME Magazine's School of Thought blog. "Students at for-profit schools, for instance, are incurring more debt and in many cases getting little or no value for their money."