A. Wayne Johnson, the head of the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, on Wednesday gave his first public remarks since he was appointed to that role by Secretary Betsy DeVos in July. Speaking at a Capitol Hill event sponsored by the National College Access Network, Johnson outlined his priorities for his tenure and weighed in on various issues facing the office. Michael Stratford has more here.
— On his priorities: Johnson said he’d be focused on improving the branding of the Office of Federal Student Aid and bringing private-sector innovations into the government. “Federal Student Aid, FSA, is an organization that delivers $130 to $150 billion worth of money to folks every year and nobody knows that we exist,” Johnson said, adding that he wants to do a better job of “promoting the fact that we are involved every step of the way” as students apply for, receive and repay their student loans.
— On changes to federal student loan portfolio: Johnson suggested that selling off parts of the federal government’s $1.4 trillion student loan portfolio to the private sector — a proposal floated by industry groups — is on the table for discussion. “It is absolutely reasonable to conclude that we are looking at any and all aspects of how the portfolio — the current portfolio and future portfolios are and will be funded,” he said when asked about such a plan.
— On student loan servicing: Johnson said it’s “highly probable that there’ll be multiple service providers that” the department hires. The Trump administration earlier this year dropped a plan to hire a single company to manage the loan payments of all federal loan borrowers amid backlash from Congress.
— On borrower defense claims: Johnson said he’s “very focused” on dealing with the backlog of those borrower defense to repayment claims “as aggressively and as assertively as possible.” He said the department is “putting the resources” in place to have the backlog of claims “properly addressed,” though he suggested that some may not be approved. “There’s a mixture of claims that are absolutely warranted,” he said. “And there’s a mixture of claims, let’s just say, that some folks showed up and decided that there was an opportunity to make a claim whether they were actually warranted or not.”