Education Department Puts 9.5-Percent Loan Tally at $3.5-Billion in This Decade

By PAUL BASKEN

Washington

The U.S. Education Department paid private student-loan companies more than $3.5-billion in this decade under a 9.5-percent subsidy program that had originally guaranteed that rate of return to nonprofit lenders, according to department data provided to Congress. Those payments, from...