Bill > S2577

Introduced Session

This bill directs the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) to annually submit to the Governor and to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the General Assembly a report on the New Jersey College Loans to Assist State Students (NJCLASS) Loan Program. The report is to be submitted no later than August 1 of each year and is to include detailed information on: the amount of bonds issued to support the NJCLASS Loan Program, the interest rate on those bonds, the total principal amount of outstanding bonds, and the retirement schedule for the bonds; the total number and outstanding principal amount of NJCLASS loans; the number of loans that have entered default and the total number of collection lawsuits that have been filed; and the number of requests that HESAA has received for loan forgiveness, loan deferment, or loan forbearance, the number of requests that have been granted or denied, and the reasons for the denial of requests. The bill also directs HESAA to develop a student loan comparison information document that allows a borrower to compare an NJCLASS loan with loans available under the federal student loan programs and provides examples of loan repayment under each program. The bill details the information that must be included on the comparison document such as: loan type, loan term, and interest rate; repayment options, including the availability of income-contingent loan repayment; loan fees; estimated cost of borrowing over the life of the loan; availability of loan deferments, forbearance, and forgiveness; default rates; and the average annual number of wage garnishment orders. The purpose of this bill is to increase transparency under the NJCLASS Loan Program and public knowledge and awareness of the stringent loan repayment requirements under the program as compared to federal student loan programs.

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Committee Categories

Daniel Benson (D)*,  Sandra Cunningham (D)*,  JoAnn Downey (D)*,  Robert Gordon (D)*,  Mila Jasey (D)*,  Joe Lagana (D)*,  Elizabeth Muoio (D)*,  Teresa Ruiz (D)*,  Shavonda Sumter (D)*,  Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D),  Patrick Diegnan (D),  Linda Greenstein (D),  Eric Houghtaling (D),  John McKeon (D),  Nellie Pou (D),  Brian Stack (D), 

Approved P.L.2017, c.129. (on 07/21/2017)