The need to provide borrowers with superior counseling and information about responsible debt management is as important to TG's public awareness activities as efforts to increase understanding about the available student financial aid options. TG watches with alarm the growth of total indebtedness of students, which arises not only from student loans but also from consumer debts such as credit cards. In 1996, the TG Board of Directors established Project Lifeline, a major default prevention initiative to highlight TG's increasing concern for student loan defaults and debt management. TG and the Council also will host a major default prevention and debt management conference in June 1998 to draw upon the expertise of the entire Texas student financial aid industry to develop strategies to reduce the negative impact of defaults on borrowers. Loan volumes in Texas and the entire nation have multiplied.
Equivalent growth is evident in the number of regulations and policies that govern federal aid.
Three years after the HEA was signed into law, there were only 26 sections in the Code of Federal Regulations governing the federal student financial aid programs. By 1994, the number of sections of federal regulations for the student aid programs had grown to 7,000. Borrowers are also more informed and expect more from schools, lenders, servicers, secondary markets, and guarantors. They no longer take their student financial aid benefits for granted. They are asking tougher questions and making informed decisions about their education investment.