6B
Nation/World
Tuesday October 27,1998
Default rate slides for student loans
Job growth, laws lead to low figure
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The default rate on student loans fell into single digits for the first time, the Education Department reported yesterday, citing an agency and congressional crackdown as well as an improved economy.
The drop to a 9.6 percent default rate for fiscal year 1996 was the sixth annual decline since rates peaked at 22.4 percent in 1990.
Congress passed legislation in 1990 and 1992 to crack down on borrowers
and trade schools such as beauty colleges and truck-driving schools that promised more job training than they delivered. And the country began to pull out of a recession in early 1991.
"The student loan program is now a shining example of government providing opportunity with accountability," President Clinton said in a statement.
Stricter government controls have eliminated more than 1,000 schools from the program, while a better economy means jobs will be available for those who finish college. Clinton said.
The department noted that the default rate has declined even though the volume of loans has risen from about $14 billion in 1992 to $38 billion in the 1998 fiscal year. Because of the volume,
In 1991, for example, the department had to repay $3.6 billion in default claims to lenders. In fiscal 1998, the department had to repay $2.8 billion.
actual dollar savings are not as dramatic as they could have been.
The department was still compiling information on how much money it was able to collect from students who had defaulted, but preliminary estimates show an increase from $900 million last year to $800 million this year.
A new higher education bill approved by Congress will further streamline the program and make it more accountable, said Rep. Bill Goodling, R-Pa., chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee.
"Less time and money spent on delinquent loans means more time and
money to help needy students receive financial assistance." Goodling said.
Education Secretary Richard Riley said current borrowers could lessen the chance of default by consolidating loans under a new rate of 7.46 percent, made possible under the newly enacted Higher Education Amendments of 1998. The deadline for doing so is Jan. 31, 1999.
In its report yesterday, the department said 197,000 borrowers at 7,500 schools had defaulted on their loans. The highest default rates were at the trade schools, with an average of 18.2 percent. The lowest default rates were at four-year colleges and universities, at about 7 percent.
Netanyahu clears barrier in Mideast peace efforts
The Associated Press
TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won a no-friendship motion yesterday in parliament, getting past the first of several political hurdles aimed at challenging a new Middle East peace deal.
But the threat of early elections loomed after legislators decided to present a bill to parliament calling for a spring vote.
Selling the new land-for-pace deal to hard-liners in his coalition government has not been easy. The brutal killing of a Jewish settler, apparently by Palestinians, yesterday in the West Bank city of Hebron was likely to make the process even harder.
In a demonstration outside the premier's home later yesterday, hundreds of right-wing Israelis carried torches and angry signs calling for Netanyahu's resignation. Many chanted "Bibi is a traitor," referring to the prime minister by his nickname.
Some protesters scuffled with police and tried to break through a barrier. Police said 21 people were arrested.
Still, lawmakers from the dovish Labor party and its left-wing partners made good on a promise to back the premier in parliament, at least until the new accord signed last Friday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is implemented.
"We believe the prime minister should be removed from office and we believe in
early elections ... but we will not trade our principles for political gain. For the sake of peace, we will not allow "Netanyahu to fall. Labor lawmaker Eli Goldsmith said.
The no-fidence motion brought by the tiny, extreme right-wing Moleted party failed to pass, with eight votes in favor, 21 against and 15 abstentions.
Netanyahu: No-confidence motion
failed yesterday.
A. majority of the 120
lawmakers, including Netanyahu, did not show up for the vote, which had almost no chance of passing.
Labor's support in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, is key to Netanyahu, who faces growing opposition to the peace plan from within his own coalition government.
Honduran government removes citizens out of hurricane's path
The Associated Press
LA CEIBA, Honduras — The Honduran government sent air force planes to pluck residents off remote Caribbean islands yesterday in the face of the most powerful hurricane in a decade to threaten Central America.
Hurricane Mitch became a Category 5 hurricane — the strongest category — yesterday with winds of 180 mph. At 3 p.m., Mitch's center was 35 miles southeast of Honduras' Swan Island and was moving north-northwest at 8 mph.
"Mitch is expected to remain a very dangerous hurricane capable of causing catastrophic damage," the U.S. National Weather Service said in a statement from its National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Hurricane Mitch posed no immediate threat to the United States. The storm was expected to remain in the northwest Caribbean for the next five days, the center said.
Jerry Jarrrell, the center's director, said Mitch was the strongest hurricane to strike the Caribbean since Gilbert in 1988.
declared a state of alert and told coastal residents to leave their homes for safer ground farther inland.
In La Ceiba, on Honduras' western coast, people stood in long lines at filling stations under a steady rain.
President Carlos Flores Facusse
The president ordered all air force planes and helicopters to evacuate people from the Bay islands, a string of small islands off the central coast.
Swinwick Jackson, a fisherman on one of the islands, said he had tied up his boats and was planning to take his family to stay with a relative on higher ground. Speaking by telephone from Utila, 20 miles north of La Ceiba, he said most tourists had left the island Sunday but that some were stranded and that hotels were moving them to houses in the mountains.
"Mitch is closing in, and God help us in the coming hours," said Utila Mayor Monterrey Cardenas.
Police representative Ivan Mejia said three rivers — the Coco, Segovia and Cruta — all overflowed their banks yesterday along the eastern Honduran coast.
Information about sniper could result in FBI reward
The Associated Press
AMHERST, N.Y. — Investigators announced a $100,000 reward yesterday for information leading to the arrest of the sniper who shot Dr. Barnett Sleipan. The announcement was made the same day the abortion provider was buried.
Hundreds of family, colleagues and patients attended the burial, several with children in tow. There was a heavy police presence as well.
"He brought these two into the world," said Alan Dickison, hand-in-hand with his 4-year-old son, Connor, and 2-year-old daughter, Kelsey. "He was for children. This is all he lived for."
The children, Dickison said, are what the slain doctor should be remembered for, not the abortions that made up a small part of his practice.
Hours before the 52-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist was killed by a high-powered rifle shot through his kitchen window on Friday night, his wife faxed local police a warning from the National Abortion Federation, a group of abortion providers, warning of possible violence.
Mrs. Sleipan did not request police protection and no action was taken, Chief John Askey said. Canadian and American authorities had issued safety tips to doctors Oct. 20, because four earlier sniper attacks on abortion providers in the past four years all took place within weeks of Nov. 11, Veteran's Dav. known as Remembrance Dav in Canada.
None of the earlier attacks were fatal. While American and Canadian authorities acknowledged similarities, they would not say whether they had positively linked Slepian's killing with the earlier shootings.
A letter from President and Mrs. Clinton, read at the private funeral, said: "Violence in our society hurts all, but few have had to endure its effects so personally."
Police were pursuing tips that included the sighting of a white car in the area and another car with Canadian license plates, Askey said.
"We're not leaving any stone unturned ... We want to get to the bottom of this," said FBI spokesman Bernard Tolbert. The reward was financed by the FBI.
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