I am on Pacific time, so the momentous ed news is closer to here than the east. The student loan re-do was just signed by Prez Obama, a move that will make the government the primary lender of ed loans. The banks are practically out of this process.
The President brought this news into the limelight when he spoke at the Virginia community college last week.

What does this law mean to students? Now, federal student loans will be handled by government officials, and not by the banks. No more middlemen. The president said that change would save more than $60 billion over the next 10 years, which in turn would be used to boost Pell Grants for students and reinvest in community colleges.

Of course, you can secure loans from private lenders who are not backed by government funds.
This is what the new law amounts to on the ground: [1] Government will guarantee that workers in low-paying jobs will be able to reduce their payments. [2] Current law caps monthly payments at 15% of these workers’ incomes, the new law will lower the cap to 10%. [3] About half of undergraduates receive federal student aid and about 8.5 million students are going to college with the help of Pell Grants.

The legislation will make it easier to pay back student loans. The share of income that a graduate must devote to loan payments is now less. Loan waivers will happen more quickly. Those who take out new loans after July 1, 2014, will have to set aside 10% of their income to payments, down from the current 15%. Those who are regular in payments will have their loans forgiven after 20 years, reduced from the current 25. “Income-based repayment is a fantastic addition to the Senate bill that will allow over a million students to avoid being crushed by unmanageable levels of debt,” said Rich Williams, a higher-education advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Students will get their loans from their college’s financial aid cells.

Pell Grants will now be richer by several billion dollars. But that will not completely help students who take those loans. It will cover only one-third of the cost – as against 75% in the 70’s – since tuition fees have soared in the intervening years.

Also, what got left out in the proposal are [1] the original amount promised to community colleges and [2] setting up of free, high-quality online courses.
Those will have to wait.