KCRA, in Citrus Heights, CA ran a story on its web site recently about a young woman who grew up in California’s foster care system. Her ambition was to attend college, but she needed funding from, the State of California to realize her dream. The last $5,000 of her tuition was tied up with the State budget, which had not been passed and was nearly two months late. At the last moment, the State resolved its budget issues and the woman was awarded her $5,000.

The story raises the issue, however, of the ease with which governmental authorities can toy with the availability of student aid funding. This centralized control is exactly what the Democrats have proposed, and plan to foist on the country. We’ve already seen the efficacy of the FDLP. It’s running billions of dollars in the red, and has never once broken even in its illustrious history.

What happens when student loan funding once again becomes a political football? How many students will be denied student loans, given aid packages that don’t cover their expenses, or be forced to scramble at the last minute to come up with funds that the government no longer wants to (or is able to) provide?

Student loan funding shouldn’t be left to the Federal government. Canada’s failing experiments with centralized student loan servicing should be serving as a colossal warning to those who think that the Federal government can do a better job of servicing student loans.

The FFELP lenders compete with each other because students are free to move their student loan businesses from one lender to another at any time. If a borrower does not like the customer service he’s receiving, or finds a better interest rate, the borrower can move the loan as he sees fit.

Under the new plan, that’s just not going to happen anymore, and the big losers in all of this will be the students, who will be stuck dealing with the Federal government’s student loan program. Students who have the misfortune of dealing with the Feds are in for a big surprise, especially after having dealt with professional lenders. The Federal government has no incentive to improve their loan products, loan processes, or customer service. After all, they’re the Federal government and they’re doing you a favor.

Tell your Congressional Representatives that you don’t want to be stuck in yet another non-responsive Federal program. Tell them that you would prefer to work within the current system, and preserve the competition, and the benefits of dealing with FFELP lenders.