The default rate on federal student loans is increasing. According to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Education:
The draft FY 2009 national student loan cohort default rate is 8.9 percent. The draft rate increased from the national FY 2008 official rate of 7.0 percent and the national FY 2007 official rate of 6.7 percent.
The FY 2009 draft cohort default rates represent the percentage of borrowers in the Federal Family Education Loan and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan programs who began repaying their loans between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009, and who defaulted on or before September 30, 2010.
That means that there are nearly 90,000 more people defaulting on their student loans than the year before.
Students who attended for-profit schools accounted for 47 percent of the defaults. Only 10 percent of college students, however, attend proprietary schools.
