Thread: House Bill May Kill Subsidized Student Loans

House Bill May Kill Subsidized Student Loans

Thursday, September 17, 2009 10:09 AM

WASHINGTON -- The House is poised to vote to push private lenders out of the federal college loan business and massively expand the government's own lending program.

Lawmakers debated a student aid bill Wednesday that has widespread support, including from the White House. The measure is expected to win passage Thursday and go next to the Senate.

Proponents of putting the government in charge of all federal loans say it would save an estimated $87 billion, though this figure has been disputed.

The money would boost Pell Grants for needy students and pay for a new college completion fund, community college reforms and more college aid for veterans.

"No student in this great country of ours should have to mortgage their future to pursue their dreams," said the bill's sponsor, California Democratic Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Yet the money also would be spent on things that don't help pay for college, such as construction at K-12 schools and new preschool programs.

And while the measure would increase Pell Grants, it would do nothing to curb college costs, which rise much faster than Pell Grants do.

Changes in federal student aid would fulfill a campaign promise by President Barack Obama and transform a long-standing partnership between the government and the private sector.

Republican critics argue it is wrong to put the government in near-total control of student lending.

"Ask yourselves whether another government takeover is what we need right now," said Minnesota Rep. John Kline, senior Republican on the Education Committee.

Many also worry about job losses in their districts.

The measure would end the subsidized loan program under which private lenders made $56 billion in loans backed by the government to more than 6 million students last year, compared with $14 billion in direct loans from the government. Private lenders employ more than 30,000 people whose jobs depend on the subsidized loan program, and the industry says many would be laid off.

Sallie Mae employees have been trying to involve local leaders in the issue and recently held a series of town hall meetings and petition drives in Pennsylvania, Florida, Delaware, New York and Indiana.

Sallie Mae, the biggest student loan provider, has about 8,500 employees in the program. It still will have contracts to service federal loans but would probably lay off about 30 percent of those workers.

Democratic Rep. David Wu of Oregon said lenders still could make all the loans they want. "What will not happen anymore is making those student loans with taxpayer subsidies," he said.

As consumers, college students probably wouldn't notice any difference in their loans, which they would get through their schools. Broadly speaking, the bill doesn't do much to make loans cheaper or help pay them off.

It does keep interest rates for some federal loans -- those based on need -- from jumping from 3.4 percent currently to 6.8 percent as scheduled in 2012. Interest rates for most other loans would remain at 6.8 percent.

Under the measure, Pell Grants would rise slightly more than inflation over the next decade, increasing on average by about 2.6 percent yearly, according to the bill's sponsors.

The bill marks the first time lawmakers have ever agreed to a long-term annual increase in the program. Pell Grants have always depended on annual spending bills and on occasion have stayed flat or been cut when lawmakers came under pressure to reduce spending.

However, the bill does not actually change the situation. Obama originally proposed to take Pell Grants out of lawmakers' hands entirely, making the program an entitlement like Social Security and Medicare, which would have cost an estimated $117 billion -- more than lawmakers have to spend.

http://moneynews.newsmax.com/financenew ... 61260.html

Wait a minute. We lose taxpayer subsidies to those giving out student loans, but set up a government program or another mammoth agency so the government can give loans? And where do these folks think the money behind the federal government comes from besides taxpayer dollars? That and the printing presses working at the U.S. Mint.

Wait a minute. We lose taxpayer subsidies to those giving out student loans, but set up a government program or another mammoth agency so the government can give loans? And where do these folks think the money behind the federal government comes from besides taxpayer dollars? That and the printing presses working at the U.S. Mint.

Moreover, no government bureaucracy is as efficient, so thousands of government workers will be added to the rolls, plus their medical coverage, retirement, etc. This is another ploy to expand the role of government. What strings will a 100% government loan program attach to the loans? 2 years of service in Obama's private army?

Overhaul of college aid OK'd by House

Government would take charge of student loans

ASSOCIATED PRESS and THE WASHINGTON POST
2:00 a.m. September 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — The House voted yesterday in favor of the biggest overhaul of college aid programs since their creation in the 1960s — a bill to greatly reduce the role of private lenders in the student loan business and put the government in charge.

The vote was 253-171 in favor of a bill that fulfills nearly all of President Barack Obama's campaign promises for higher education: The measure ends subsidies for private lenders, boosts Pell Grants for needy students and creates grant programs to improve community colleges and college graduation rates, among other things.

“These are reforms that have been talked about for years, but they're always blocked by special interests and their lobbyists,â€