News Analysis: Student-Loan Rescue Plan Has Hidden Costs and Benefits

After months of artfully promoting doomsday scenarios for the federal student-lending system, the nation's loan companies appear to have won terms from Congress and the Bush administration that could help both the lenders and the student borrowers.

The federal program already hands out interest-rate subsidies and repayment guarantees to enable lenders to offer cut-rate student loans. Now, with the administration's financial rescue plan, the lenders can either use their

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