COLLEGE LOANS
Deadbeat alumni of Compton Community College could be making it harder for the school’s future students to finance their education.
The school’s federally guaranteed loan program faces new restrictions or even suspension based on 1993 statistics indicating that nearly half of the 34 students scheduled to make payments on their federal loans that year were in arrears.
Compton College was one of only two public schools in California whose loan default rate exceeded 40%, according to the recent report by the U.S. Department of Education. The other school was San Bernardino Valley College, where 40.3% of its 387 loan students defaulted in 1993, the report said. The 1993 statistics are the most current available.
Compton College’s financial aid director, W.O. Jones, said the figures cited in the report are inaccurate, and that his department has already begun an appeal process.
Jones added that the college approves very few loans, about 50 a year, because it prefers to direct students toward scholarships, grants or jobs.
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