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Foreword

The FY 1997-FY 2000 Federal Student Loan Programs Data Book (the Data Book) presents information on two major federal loan programs: the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program (FDLP). This publication is one of a number of publications produced by the staff of the Office of Policy, Planning, and Innovation (PPI), Policy, Budget and Analysis staff.

The Data Book is designed to provide information on borrower and lender activity. As its name suggests the Data Book provides a myriad of factual and statistical data on the various FFEL program and the FDLP loan components that includes: Stafford Subsidized, Stafford Unsubsidized, Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) and the Consolidation loan programs.

The FY 1997-FY 2000 Data Book is a continuation of data presented in earlier publications. The previous edition, published in summer of 1997, contained data through FY 1996. The current edition presents new information for FY 1997, FY 1998, FY 1999 and FY 2000. Like earlier editions, the FY 1997-FY 2000 Data Book continues to include cumulative loan volume commitment data and loan portfolio data for the FFEL program. Comparable data for the FDLP is presented, where available.

The data presented in this Data Book follows the format of the previous edition. First, the tables and graphs were created to stand alone and not require a lot of narrative interpretation. Second, since several tables in this edition contain cumulative data starting at the beginning of a particular loan program, the cumulative data appears in an appendix. For example, the Stafford Subsidized Loan program began more than 30 years ago. Therefore, cumulative data for this program since its inception is provided in Appendix I.  All FY 1990-FY 2000 data and related discussion appear in the body of the Data Book.

The information contained in this publication is also available at the PPI Web site. This site contains other useful information such as the FFEL Program Quarterly Loan Volume Update, the Direct Loan Quarterly Loan Volume Update and other pertinent information. Data Books for other Title IV programs are also available on the Web site. The Web site address is: www.ed.gov/finaid/prof/resources/data/ope.html

Questions and comments regarding the contents of this publication should be directed to:

Donald Conner
Management/Program Analyst
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Postsecondary Education
1990 K Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20006
email: donald.conner@ed.gov
(202) 502-7818

Acknowledgments

The author and the Policy & Budget Development Unit express our sincere appreciation and thanks to the knowledgeable colleagues whose valuable contributions helped make the production of this edition of the FY 1997-FY 2000 Federal Student Loan Programs Data Book a success.

I would especially like to thank Greg Senseney, from the Financial Partners Channel in Federal Student Aid (FSA). Greg collected and provided data and contributed expert advice on several tables included in this publication. I would also like to thank David Morgan also of FSA.

The Office of Postsecondary Education would also like to thank the Human Services staff of Westat for producing the Data Book. Although Beth Sinclair and Patricia Troppe co-managed the preparation of the Data Book and proofed the data tables, text, and graphs, numerous other Westat staff also contributed to this effort.