If you listen to Congressional Democrats, they say they are 100-percent committed to the idea of helping young Americans pay for a college education. On the surface, helping to pay for higher education makes sense. Many more people can attend colleges and universities, and later can fill a variety of demanding, rewarding, and high-paying jobs.

If you look at what Congress is doing, however, the story is a bit different. Congress last adjusted the Federal financial aid caps in 1992. In the mean time, the cost of higher education has tripled. Congress has made it more difficult to get Federal financial aid, by imposing regulations and restrictions on eligibility. Congress has passed 529 and 530 college savings plans, to encourage college savings by parents, grandparents and students themselves. Parents can start saving as soon as a child is born, and many do.

Congress is now reducing the subsidies paid to student loan lenders, who wouldn’t otherwise issue loans to students. Instead, your legislators want to herd you into a second-rate Federal program. If this iteration of the Higher Education Act is anything like the last two, we could be stuck with low lifetime lending caps, restrictions on grant sizes and no ability to reduce the interest rate we pay on our student loans for years.

It seems as though Congress would like to get out of the business of college lending altogether. Congress has hijacked the FFELP, and stripped it of most of its Federal subsidies. Once everyone is forced into a single lending program, there’s nothing to stop Congress from reducing funding to the FDLP, or perhaps eliminating it altogether. With no viable alternatives for getting money for college, college enrollment will drop.

The FFELP has tripled the US college graduation rate. Think about it. Why else would Congress break a mechanism that’s worked for more than 40 years? By not increasing Federal financial aid in a way that’s kept pace with the rise in tuition for the past 15 years, Congress has effectively reduced Federal financial aid to needy students. At a time when this country needs more highly educated and talented people, Congress is doing something that will reduce access to a college education for many American students.

This sinister hijack seems more like a plan to “wean” us from Federal financial aid. If you or your parents don’t save enough money to pay for college outright, and can’t secure enough scholarships and non-Federal grants, you may not be going to college. Is that what you want? The Congressional Democrats are luring you in with promises of lower interest rates, which they won’t deliver. Remember, high interest rates aren’t the problem. They’ve made it harder to get Federal financial aid; they want you to pay the administrative costs of their program out of your pocket; and they’re pushing college savings plans like they’re chocolate. Congress wants out!

Tell your Congressional representatives that they have a duty to the country and to its people to support the aspirations of talented students. This country needs a strong, diverse student loan lending program to support its college students.