In the past few weeks, hundreds, - perhaps thousands – of people employed by student loan lenders have been laid off after the passage of this new legislation. The lenders are acutely aware of the fact that this legislation will forever change the way students pay for college, and most of the lenders understand that they can no longer be part of the program.

I’m not talking about the mega-lenders, although they will also be affected. I’m talking about the thousands of small lenders who brought innovations, creative lending packages and earnest competition to the student loan lending industry. I’m talking about the local lenders, the non-profit loan lenders and servicers, the private companies who developed programs to help student borrowers avoid default, build good credit ratings and manage their finances responsibly.

There are more than 3,500 FFELP lenders in this country. If each of those lenders laid off only three people, that’s still a better than 10,000-job loss. And for what benefit?

The Congressional Research Service estimated that very few students would actually benefit from these drastic changes to the student loan program. The interest rate cuts, even at 50 percent, will save the average student $18 per month. The average annual increase to the Pell Grants is only a couple hundred dollars and most students don’t qualify for Pell Grants in the first place. This ridiculous “relief” is supposed to benefit students? Come one! Do the people in Washington understand that a single college text book can cost more than $150, let alone the annual double-digit and near double-digit increases in tuition? What is $200 per year supposed to do?

What happens when that $11.4 billion has to stretch across more students? Congress hasn’t done anyone any favors with this measure. Remember that in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections. The cost of higher education is spiraling out of control. There’s no end in sight and despite the best intentions of people who really want what’s best for students, many students will be closed out of our institutions of higher learning. Congress has done nothing to curb the tuition increases that our colleges and universities are passing on to students.

Congress is offering water to students who are drowning in the costs of higher education. Killing the FFELP won’t solve the problems students face. It won’t lessen the burden of paying for higher education. It won’t even make a dent. The mechanisms that students use to pay for college aren’t the problem, and they never have been. The grossly high cost of tuition is the problem. It has always been the problem and it will always be the problem until someone does something to stop the tuition increases.