-The big news this month is...the same big news as last month: Income Based Repayment ("IBR"), set to start July 1. More on IBR from Marketplace, the Wall Street Journal (also here), the National Law Journal (which article also explains the loan forgiveness provisions that also start July 1), Examiner (which article notes that Sallie Mae will be participating in the program) And check out this info page and calculator for IBR.

-Know what else is happening July 1? Student loan interest rates will drop to historic lows! Just what we needed, another reminder that people who haven't yet consolidated can get way lower interest rates than those who have consolidated.

-More folks are asking if there will ever be a bailout for student borrowers, including The Nation, Encarta, and Huliq. Note also that because of recent economic hard times, some loan forgiveness programs have disappeared (more here).

-Stories on student loan debt burden from DailyKos, NOW on PBS, the New York Times ("There was a time when kids whose parents couldn’t afford to pay for college just worked their way through. But the price has gone up so fast — more than twice as fast as inflation over the last two decades — that it’s not an option any more, unless the student in question is planning to be a sophomore through 2020, or is exploring the possibility of part-time employment in armed robbery."), and Salon ("And that there is the rub: Everyone benefits when the population of a university, especially the best ones in the nation, are made up of the kids who are there because they earned their place based on their own work, not the education or income of their parents. This is democracy 101, folks.")

-"The U.S. Supreme Court has granted re-view to determine whether a debtor could obtain a discharge of his student loans (non-dischargeable absent a showing of undue hardship) merely by declaring it to be a hardship, or whether he must commence an adversarial action against the creditor."

-In case you were wondering how our old pal Sallie Mae is doing financially, I'm sure you'll be thrilled to know that shares are up!

-Could your student loans, indeed your whole credit report, cost you a job offer? (Anyone else think it's pretty rich that career opportunities that require degrees are denied to people based on the debt they acquired to get those degrees?)

Student Loan Debt Clock: $584 billion.

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-Stories and opinions on President Obama's proposed financial aid changes from The Washington Post (and another), The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Miami Herald, Bloomberg, and The Washington Independent.

-A story on rising default rates from the Times-Herald Record.

-Stories on the burdens of student debt from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, USA Today, The Detroit News, The LaCrosse Tribune and Bankrate.com.

-Help may be on the way for teachers in the form of loan forgiveness. Could help also be on the way for all of us in the form of income based repayments? More here, here and here. Also Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has proposed legislationthat would reverse the bankruptcy law that excludes federal student loans.

-Check out this interview with Alan Collinge, author of The Student Loan Scam, at Inside Higher Ed.

-More shady hijinks appear to be afoot in the student loan industry - Phillip Day, former Chancellor of City College of San Francisco turned head of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, is being investigated for potential fundraising abuse/misuse of public funds. More here. Someone in the student loan/higher education industry having crooked dealings? The hell you say!

Student Loan Debt Clock: $580 billion.

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