There has been a lot of talk in the media about financial aid officers’ ulterior motives which cause them to steer students towards certain lenders. Politicians would make you think there is a nation-wide conspiracy by school administrators to give students bad choices while making money for themselves. Oh wait. No wonder the politicians are upset. It’s their job to abuse power for personal gain.

Maybe the real conspiracy here is the politicians trying to distract us from what they are doing to student financial aid. With misdirection skills any Las Vegas magician would sell their linking rings for, Senators are jumping on the reform bandwagon. It sure is lucky they have a fleet of legislation ready to vote into law—almost like they planned it. As long as nobody reads the bills they’ve drafted they can pass them into law and tell the American public how they single-handedly put an end to financial aid corruption. That should make a good sound bite come election time and it could play well on the campus tours.

In fact, Congress must hate competition. The legislation they proposed would give the government a virtual monopoly on student lending. Without subsidies, loan companies won’t be able to offer incentives. That makes student loans more expensive to the customer. The long-term effect would be more debt for the students.

So whose ulterior motives should we be more worried about? I’m not excusing anyone who abuses their position for personal gain, but who poses the bigger threat – the administrator who might cut corners or the Congressman who bases life-altering legislation on political aspirations?

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.