The Congressional Democrats say the rising amount of student loan debt is a real problem. That’s a thin disguise for the real problem: the cost of a college education has risen much faster than the rate of inflation. That’s the real problem. And the College Student Relief Act and the STAR Amendment are dysfunctional measures that don’t address the real problem.

Congressional Democrats point the finger at the lenders and say “The lenders are charging high interest rates, and students are coming out of college with $40,000 in debts. Therefore, the lenders are the problem.” Student loan debt and the cost of borrowing money are two different things. The principal amount of a loan is a much larger component of student loan debt than the interest rate is. The more a student has to borrow, the more debt s/he will accumulate. Student loan lenders don’t even control the interest rates on student loans. The FFELP student loan rate is legislated by Congress. Congress complains about the “high” (read: sub-prime) student loan interest rate, yet Congress sets the maximum student loan rate. Congress tells student loan lenders what to charge.

Congressional Democrats could most effectively reduce student loan debt by reducing the amount of money a student has to borrow in the first place. Cutting the interest rate on loans that are already sub-prime may knock a few dollars off of the loan’s lifetime value, but it does nothing to attack the size of the loan’s principal, and therein lies the problem.

If the Congressional Democrats wanted to attack the real problem, they would be working night and day to reduce the cost of college tuition. They would be modifying the limits on the Pell Grant program, and providing more direct aid and grants to more students. Instead they concoct defective legislation that unfairly blames and penalizes lenders, and large cuts to state subsidies, which force states to cut subsidies to their colleges and universities, and force colleges and universities to pass the losses on to the students.

The lender, who has no control over the cost of tuition and has no influence on the minimum cost of borrowing money, is at the end of this chain reaction. Congress has the power to make positive changes that will reduce the cost of college and yet, they choose to point their fingers at the one industry capable of delivering a consistent and workable solution for the problems Congress has created.

Please, take a moment to tell your Congress representative and Senator to solve the real problem by finding solutions that reduce the cost of college tuition.

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Call your Senators
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Tell your friends the truth about the proposed student loan legislation