Congressional Democrats want to reduce the amount of debt students hold when they graduate from college. Unfortunately, they’re not planning anything that will attack the problem at its source. Instead, Congress has chosen to attack the solution that’s put 50 million American students through college since the mid-1960’s.

If Congress succeeds in putting its plan into action, student loan costs for American families will rise. Why would Congress push a plan that will take more money out of your wallet? Good question, and it’s one that you should be posing to your Congressional representatives.

Eight out of ten students use the lending programs run by the FFELP lenders. 90 percent of colleges and universities participate in the FFELP lending program, and more than 80 percent participate in the FFELP programs exclusively. There’s very little possibility that you won’t be affected by this student loan legislation, and the end result is that more money will be coming out of your pocket.

Right now, the FFELP lenders use subsidies to waive fees and fund discounts on student loans. Discounts on the interest rate charged are given when borrowers sign up for electronic payments, or to reward responsible repayment. If you make timely payments over a certain period of time, lenders will sometimes reduce your loan interest rate.  According to the rules of the program today, lenders can do that as a way to encourage repayment, help borrowers avoid default, and reduce the overall cost of borrowing.

Under Congress’ plan, all that will change. There won’t be any more incentives for borrowers. Borrowers will be paying all loan origination fees, which FFELP lenders often waive currently. Borrowers won’t receive any interest rate deductions because the new legislation outlaws that.

Additionally, the FDLP plan, which Congress proposes as a substitute, will not pay for any of its administrative costs, so colleges and universities will have to shell out to cover those.  (Right now, those costs are paid for by the subsidies that Congress is so hot to cut.) The colleges and universities will pass those increased costs…and they are significant…along to the students in the form of tuition and fee increases. This plan will actually increase tuition, causing students to borrow more to pay for higher education.

Congress needs to concentrate on the real problem, which is the out-of-control increase in the cost of tuition. Right now, the only plan they’re talking about doesn’t address the cost of tuition, and guarantees that the cost of higher education will rise.

Tell your Congressional representatives and senators that you’re not interested in a shell game that simply shifts the administrative cost of government student loans onto the backs of student borrowers. Tell them to attack the real problem: the rising cost of tuition.