It’s very clear that punishing the FFELP lenders isn’t going to reduce the cost of tuition one bit. After all, lenders don’t set the cost of tuition. So what’s behind the big cost increases and why isn’t anyone doing anything about it? In his paper, The Real Cost of Federal Aid to Higher Education, Dr. Richard Vedder, Director of the Center on College Affordability and Productivity, and author of Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs Too Much has some ideas about why a college education is so expensive.

Dr. Vedder lists twelve primary causes for the uncontrolled increase in college tuition, many of which could be addressed by changes in the governance structures of public universities; changes in the level of accountability and transparency of these institutions; and changes in the way money can be spent inside public institutions. All of these things are within the control of state legislatures. Congress can exert pressure for change on the state legislatures, but they’ve chosen a whipping boy instead.

Have the Congressional Democrats done any investigation into the causes of rising college tuition? No. Is punishing FFELP lenders for the cost of college tuition going to lower college tuition? No. Congress views the interest rates on student loans to be the only measure of control they have over the rising cost of college tuition. Equally unfortunately, student loan interest rates are a drop in the bucket compared to the 86 percent increase in tuition costs since 1991-92. Have student loan interest rates gone up 86 percent? Nowhere near it. Loan rates fluctuate, but Congress carefully controls those. In some cases, the interest rates have gone as low as 3.5 percent. While the costs are spiraling out of control, student loan rates have held steady or dropped. Student loan interest rates aren’t the problem!

What issues do contribute to the frightening increases in college tuition? Lack of public accountability; lack of motivation to improve; giant compensation increases for senior administration and faculty; lack of incentives to control costs; poor accounting controls; and weak governance structures at the public universities all contribute to an environment where tuition costs creep unchecked.

Instead of addressing these issues, Congress is beating up student loan lenders. Who’s holding Congress accountable for its inaction on this issue? Call, write or email your Congressional representatives today. Tell them that you want more transparency and accountability in higher education as a means to deal with the real causes of student debt.

You can make a difference
Call your Senators
Send your Senators an e-mail
Download a letter and fax it to your Senators
Sign the petition and
Tell your friends the truth about the proposed student loan legislation