The so-called Sunshine Amendment deserves a little “sunshine” of it’s own. The Sunshine Amendment prohibits lenders from offering inducements to secure student loan applications. If you accept the premise that the Sunshine Amendment is good, then you’ll quickly find that the STAR Amendment runs afoul of it. Why? The STAR Amendment offers colleges and universities inducements to steer student loan applicants into the Federal program.

Yes, indeed. The STAR Amendment violates the terms of the Sunshine Amendment. The STAR Amendment mandates exactly what the Sunshine Amendment prohibits. Talk about two-faced. Congressional Democrats are running around like Keystone Cops trying to get something (anything!) done, and the best thing they can come up with are two amendments that would make the Mad Hatter proud!

If the law prohibits FFELP lenders from offering inducements to colleges and universities, parents and borrowers, the FDLP should operate under the same restrictions. Fair is fair, right? Apparently for the Congressional Democrats, “fair” means different things, depending upon whom you’re talking about. If you’re talking about FFELP lenders, offering incentives to students, parents, universities and colleges to participate in your programs is “unfair.” If you’re the FDLP, then those kinds of inducements are not just “fair”, they’re required by law.

And just in case the whole fair/unfair thing isn’t stacked well enough to favor the FDLP, the legislation also mandates that schools participate in the FDLP. Somehow, it is “fair” to restrict students, parents and institutions to dealing with one lender: the Federal government. This program will trap all student loan borrowers. You won’t have a choice. No lenders will compete for your business because that kind of competition would be “unfair.” The law will prevent lenders from rewarding their customers with “inducements” like interest rate reductions for on-time payments, electronic payments and automatic payments, because those would be “unfair.”

Apparently, the Federal government doesn’t have to play by the same rules it wants to impose on private lenders. Instead, Congressional Democrats want to force people to use their broken, insolvent program, and if it means they have to take away your right to choose among lenders, then that’s exactly what they’ll do.

Tell your representatives in Congress that “fair IS fair.” You want a level playing field and you want choice in lending. Once this program is gone, it will be too late to complain. Speak now, because this is what you’ll be stuck with if you don’t.

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

I haven’t always agreed with Margaret Spellings, the U.S. Secretary of Education, particularly with the “No Student Left Behind” program, but she made two points on “The Daily Show” that I completely agree with. She agrees there are problems with the financial system, but she thinks the real question is why we need so much financial aid. I couldn’t agree more! What Congress should be spending their time investigating is why college is so expensive. Instead they are spending their time, which is our time, trying to sabotage programs that work while making meaningless promises about student loan interest rates – promises that will just make college harder to afford.

I also agree with Secretary Spellings that part of the problem with the education system is with the general lowering of American expectations. She was referring specifically to the K-12 grades, but I think what she said can be applied to higher education as well. It can even be applied to our political system. We don’t expect a lot out of our politicians. Well, we don’t expect anything good out of them. Maybe the reason the politicians drafted the Sunshine Act is because they have low expectations, as well. They see the FFELP is working and immediately assume there must be some level of corruption or mistake in the numbers. They aren’t used to seeing a federal program that works and doesn’t cost taxpayers a fortune!

We’ve lowered our expectations to the point that we only try to tell our elected officials what we think when it’s time to vote for them. By the same token, they’ve lowered their expectations of us and assume we won’t call, email, or even sign a petition. Maybe all these lower expectations are creating a society of apathy. Maybe today you start changing that by signing this petition and telling your Congressmen we expect more of them.

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

Another day, another self-serving piece of legislation works its way through the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. But it isn’t about how the media is going to talk about the legislation. It’s about the students. At least that’s what the media and the Senators sponsoring the legislation tell me.

To be fair, some of the federal education programs need work, but the FFELP is doing a great job. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but it isn’t costing tax payers any money and the lenders and school administrators like it. A-ha! That’s a new tactic for this season – attack the school administrators. Did you know one school official said he was once offered a trip to someplace sunny to hear about a lender’s new loan program? What’s next – doctors having expensive dinners paid for by drug reps? Senators going on golfing retreats paid for by special interests? It’s not like Senator Kennedy would use a gala hosted by a non-profit financial aid resource provider that was organized by the CEO of a large bank and a TV news anchor woman to soap box the legislation he’s sponsoring. Well, I mean he’s not doing that again.

Here’s the thing: If the politicians want to rally against perceived misconduct then they should start closer to home. When the Sunshine Act went before the House for vote, a little addition was made to spell out what financial aid officers and lenders can and cannot do. Sure, there are already laws in place like the Fairness in Lending Act and the Truth in Lending Act that cover that, but those are old. The Truth in Lending Act is from the 60’s! Ted Kennedy is the only politician who can still ride that horse to the polls. The important thing is that little addition makes it even more politically timely than the bill already was. It doesn’t matter if it’s redundant. It only matters if it will play well in the press. That doesn’t sound like putting students first to me.

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

I know it might seem like I’m picking on the Sunshine Act this week, but I’m just amazed at how dim senators think we are. Not only do they assume all college students take out loans willy-nilly, they assume students take out loans using the same consumer methods as they buy sweat shirts.

Think I’m kidding? There’s a subparagraph in the Sunshine Act telling universities they will not allow lenders to use the school’s name, mascot, etc. when advertising private loans to students. Apparently Congress believes you will run out and sign up for any loan that features a drawing of your beloved football team’s mascot. You have such school spirit! Next time you are in the university bookstore why don’t you pick up a T-shirt for your little sister, an overpriced notebook for your physics class, and a loan for yourself?

There are a lot of things wrong with this scenario.

Can a college keep a lender from using any “…words, pictures, or symbols readily identified with the institution…” as stated in the Sunshine Act? That really falls into trademark law and doesn’t belong in a bill like this. I suppose a university can tell a lender not to use its mascot without permission as a reminder of the law. Not using the name of the university is a little harder. Are the lenders going to be forced to only advertise at least 100 yards away from the main campus as well?

Are students so programmed they will sign for a long-term loan based solely on the quality of the advertisement for the lender? Again, I think Congress is under-estimating the intelligence of students. Even the least savvy of consumers among students isn’t going to take the first choice that comes along with their school’s name printed on it. Seeing the ads for lenders should help make students better consumers because they can see there are other options for them.

On first inspection, it might seem like a good idea for Congress to tell private lenders how they can market their products, but just a little logic will quickly tell you that any reputable lender is making student loans based on long-term strategies. Any disreputable lender isn’t going to change their m.o. based on yet another piece of unenforceable legislation.

At best the Sunshine Act is naive. At worst it is an attempt to take away free will and open trade. Tell your senators that you’re not stupid and you aren’t falling for their tricks!

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

Someone just pointed out to me that the so-called “Student Loan Sunshine Act” will mean the financial aid representatives, the very same people currently under fire, will be instructing parents and students which private lenders they can and cannot use and how much they can borrow. That didn’t make any sense to me. Why would Senators Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry, and Rockefeller want to give more power to the same people they were just chastising?

I decided to look the bill over again. As I shifted through this very poorly worded document I found myself thinking about the administrative cost of this plan. All educational institutions receiving any federal funding or assistance will have to provide a written report on each lender they have made any student loan arrangements with. Each report will include why the institution feels the terms and conditions are in the benefit of the students for each loan type that lender is offering. That sounds like a lot of extra paperwork for an already highly bureaucratic, over worked financial aid department. Those reports would have to be given to students or their parents as well. There’s nothing like another 20 pages of complicated double talk to make the financial decisions easier, is there?

But the Sunshine Act will spread the time consuming and ultimately meaningless work around! Each lending organization will have to submit their own report on every loan arrangement and all information imaginable that is even peripherally associated with the arrangement. That includes information on marketing and endorsements. Lenders would also be limited in how they can advertise their products to students. Why would the government care how lenders advertise? There are already laws and organizations to protect consumers from false advertising. And why does the government want a report on all the minutia involved in each loan?

And who is going to go through all these reports? Don’t worry, the Sunshine Act has an answer for that one too. The Secretary will go through all the reports and then make another report to deliver to committee in the Senate and the House. Those committees will then draft another report to present to Congress. Before the Secretary’s report has time to be mulled over completely, the Secretary will submit another report explaining what changes need to be made in the formats of the reports created by the institutions and lenders for the upcoming reporting year. Is someone in the Senate getting paid every time someone says “report”?

The Sunshine Act will protect students in the end though, right? If all the reports are audited and proven to be accurate and then the reports on the reports don’t lose anything in the translation, and if borrowers can obtain, read and digest the reports before they need the loan…no, that still doesn’t really help. That just means any dishonest people will continue being dishonest, but they will have a blanket of reports to disguise themselves. A student needing financial aid for the next academic year would theoretically be able to read reports on the potential lenders that would only be 3 or 4 years out of date. Whew! It’s a shame there isn’t a financial aid office or something where experts could help them in real time.

But Senators Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton, and Rockefeller are just trying to help students, right? Oh how I wish I could say yes, but their motives are far from altruistic.

First, they get sound bites for upcoming elections so they can sound like they care about the problems of young Americans and they are doing everything within their power to help. They will be very quick to point out that the Sunshine Act was drafted to keep those evil financial aid people and those heartless lenders from bullying students into bad decisions.

Second, they create a level of administrative cost that makes offering financial loans cost prohibitive to many lenders while making it more advantageous to educational institutions to limit the number of lenders they are associated with. By signing up with the FDLP and forming alliances with only a few mega-banks, institutions will cut their reporting efforts dramatically.

Don’t be blinded by the Sunshine Act. It’s bad legislation and bad business!

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

There has been a lot of talk in the media about financial aid officers’ ulterior motives which cause them to steer students towards certain lenders. Politicians would make you think there is a nation-wide conspiracy by school administrators to give students bad choices while making money for themselves. Oh wait. No wonder the politicians are upset. It’s their job to abuse power for personal gain.

Maybe the real conspiracy here is the politicians trying to distract us from what they are doing to student financial aid. With misdirection skills any Las Vegas magician would sell their linking rings for, Senators are jumping on the reform bandwagon. It sure is lucky they have a fleet of legislation ready to vote into law—almost like they planned it. As long as nobody reads the bills they’ve drafted they can pass them into law and tell the American public how they single-handedly put an end to financial aid corruption. That should make a good sound bite come election time and it could play well on the campus tours.

In fact, Congress must hate competition. The legislation they proposed would give the government a virtual monopoly on student lending. Without subsidies, loan companies won’t be able to offer incentives. That makes student loans more expensive to the customer. The long-term effect would be more debt for the students.

So whose ulterior motives should we be more worried about? I’m not excusing anyone who abuses their position for personal gain, but who poses the bigger threat – the administrator who might cut corners or the Congressman who bases life-altering legislation on political aspirations?

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

You’ll never guess how I spent my evening. Actually you probably will since I’m posting this on StudentLoanTax.org! My friend Brandi is a grad student. She has several more semesters in her future before she will be qualified for her future profession. Tonight we took a look at her student loan situation. She needs to borrow more money than expected for the fall so she wants to plan ahead. Brandi is doing everything a responsible student should do. And then we did some math…Ouch!

When Brandi’s started grad school her undergraduate loans were deferred for payment. Some of those loans are subsidized and some aren’t so the meter is still running on the unsubsidized portions. Not including this interest she owes roughly $30,000. That’s just for her undergraduate degree. Her graduate degree is going to add up to about $22k in loans. This is when she took a deep breath. $52k.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says her chosen profession has a median average of $34,820. That’s not the first year average! That median salary includes the big money makers. Her starting salary will probably be more like $30k. The job outlook is good – it shows a general upward trend for growth. The potential earnings are bad – it shows a general downward trend that isn’t keeping up with inflation. Even if Brandi had no other bills, and that’s just not realistic, and spent every after-tax dollar she makes her first year, not even half of her tuition loans would be paid off.

Luckily her current school participates in the FFELP plan and her loan amounts have been increased due to her financial needs. Luckily the bank managing the FFELP loans has some really good incentives. As long as she makes her first 30 payments on time, she will receive a 3% cash rebate on the remaining principle. If she participates in their automatic payment program she can save a third of a percent in interest. That might not sound like a lot, but that’s $200 she doesn’t have to pay back. Any savings in her situation is a definite plus!

So why would Congress want to take these incentives away from Brandi? What could they possibly get out of costing her money? They get short-term political gain in exchange for her long-term financial worries. If our elected officials think that’s what we the people want or need it is time to give them their own education.

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

I hate to get all political about this, and I’m sure Sen. Edward Kennedy is a fine person (OK – I’m NOT so sure about that), but does he really think he can play both sides of the student aid issue and keep what little credibility he has?

He says it is time to stop thinking about profits and start thinking about students. Then he says the FDLP (Federal Direct Lending Program) is more profitable for the government than the FFELP (Federal Family Education Loan Program), so the FFELP must be reformed. Whoa right there, senator. That would mean you think the only way to better serve students is if the government makes a profit? I think Kennedy was seeing just how much fuzzy math, faulty logic, and how many unsubstantiated assumptions he could pack into one piece of legislation.

I agree that students need to be championed. I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say students and education are not important to the future of America. I bet you couldn’t even find someone in the lending business to say it isn’t important. In fact, lenders have a more direct reason than anyone to support students. Why? Profit. There – I’ve said it, and I refuse to accept the senator’s argument that private profit is a dirty word. Part of the practical reason students go to college is to get better jobs when they graduate. They’d like to get a little personal profit. Who doesn’t?

So Kennedy’s plan would champion students by a) removing their options, b) tying students with governmental apron strings, c) forcing private lenders to reduce staff … How exactly does this help students? It isn’t helping students pay for college, which is what the senator and the other members of the Senate Education Committee should be trying to do. Drafting legislation to make a political point is wrong. Claiming that legislation is in the best interest of an underrepresented group like students is a lie.

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

Congress is making some promises to students it just can’t keep with the current surge of proposed legislation. The only things wrong with its argument are math (which is based on assumptions, not on evidence) and reality. Let’s face it. How many congressmen actually had to borrow money to pay for college? Do they understand the real world of recent college grads who don’t have family connections to help them?

Our typical student, Greg L., borrows his maximum every year for four years starting this fall. He plans to graduate at the end of those four years. His subsidized loans mean he will not have to pay the interest on the loans until six months after he graduates and he begins paying off the loans.

Freshman Greg receives $2,625 at 6.12% as a subsidized loan for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Sophomore Greg receives $3,500 at 5.44%. He’s thinking of changing majors.

Junior Greg receives $5,500 at 4.76%. He’s too wrapped up with his internship to notice the decrease.

Senior Greg receives his final subsidized loan for $5,500 at 4.08%. He’s trying to figure out how to fit three quarters worth of classes into two semesters.

It’s now 2011 and Greg L. hasn’t slept in a year, but he did manage to graduate on schedule. He borrowed $17,125 in subsidized government loans. He will have to start paying them back in six months. That means Greg will have to find a job, move, get a place to live, and receive enough salary to afford paying back the loans. The clock is ticking!

If our Greg L. is like the vast majority of college students attending a four-year university he has other loans to pay back. He won’t get far with $5,500, even at the most inexpensive public schools. So Greg had to go to some private lenders, and they helped him pay for the rest.

Those private lenders understand that having just graduated, Greg L. is getting started on his own. He’ll be earning an entry level salary and facing many financial needs, so he may not be able to repay the loans right away. That’s why lenders will offer him a student loan consolidation loan that will lower his overall interest rate, lower his monthly payment, and give him a payment schedule he can follow.

So subsidized loan rate changes had zero net effect for Greg L. Nothing. Nil. Technically the rate changes cost him money, as all taxpayers had to pay for the legislation to be drafted, debated, committee’d, re-drafted … well, you get the idea. It’s a shame Congress hasn’t.

We are opposed to the proposed student loan legislation and middle-class families should be too! The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET.

It only takes one minute to make a difference: call your senators, send your senators an e-mail, download a letter to fax to your senators, become part of our petition and help your friends find out the truth about the proposed student loan legislation.

I don’t know about you, but as a college student a few hundred bucks, not to mention $5,000, is a big deal.

With all this press about student loan legislation and conflicting information saying that it is both good and bad, I thought I’d do a little research of my own. What I found is surprising to say the least and disturbing at most.

After I scoured the facts, I thought I’d plug in some numbers to see where that took me. Here’s what I did. Students receive up to 2.25% in benefits from lenders. The average student loan is $20,000 for a 20-year term. That means it will cost the average student $4,854.80 over the life of the loan if the student loan legislation passes.

Rate: 2.25% (compounded)
Term: 20 years
Amount: $20,000

That’s $4,854.80, almost $5,000 that the average student stands to lose! So, if you don’t want to end up paying big time, take action by signing the student loan petition.

STOP the College Student Relief Act and related bills NOW!

This legislation STEALS THOUSANDS FROM STUDENTS by imposing a STUDENT LOAN TAX on all federally funded loans including Stafford, PLUS and Consolidation Loans.

We are opposed to this bill because it hurts the people it says it protects… the students!

Save student loan benefits and STOP the STUDENT LOAN TAX.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

FACT:
This bill is a political gimmick! Nothing more than a “good sound-bite.” It DOES NOT deliver on the promise to save students money.

FACT:
On January 2, 2012, the interest rate returns back to 6.8 percent, making the promised $4,400 in savings is IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE.

FACT:
80% of America’s colleges and universities chose to work with FFELP because it delivers better service and more choices to their students than the Direct Loan Program.

FACT:
The Direct Lending Program COSTS TAXPAYERS - over $16 billion.

FACT:
Lending Companies give students interest rate reductions -the Direct Loan Program DOES NOT.

FACT:
The Direct Lending Program has ADDED to NATIONAL DEBT - it’s borrowed $105 billion, but has only $89 billion to repay the money.

FACT:
H.R. 5 DOES NOT provide relief to students. Interest rates are for subsidized college loans ONLY.

FACT:
This plan DOES NOT help students go to college, NOT ONE additional student will be able to attend college because of this act.

FACT:
There in NO GUARANTEE that subsidies that HR 5 proposes to stop paying FEELP Loan providers will go back to support scholarships and education.

WE ARE OPPOSED TO THE COLLEGE STUDENT RELIEF ACT AND RELATED BILLS. MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES SHOULD BE TOO!
The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET, AGAIN.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

The Financial Aid Process can sometimes seem like a maze of numbers, signatures and tax information, as just another cog in the already laborious bureaucracy of the Federal Government. However, Margaret Spellings, the U.S. Secretary of Education, has started a movement to simply the process, beginning with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Bureaucracy Limits College Access
Apparently, the length and convolution of the form is one of the issues the Senate SHOULD be dealing with in order to help low-income students go to college. According to a report released by the Department of Education stated, “the complexity of the current financial aid form as being a barrier to college access, particularly among low-income students, who, the report states, tend to have greater difficulty compiling the necessary financial information. An estimated 1.5 million low-income students who were likely eligible for Pell Grants did not apply for aid in 2004, nearly double the number in 2000, according to the report.”

Move to Streamline the FAFSA
Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), announced new legislation that would cut the form’s length from five pages to two, while increasing Web access, allowing high school juniors to file a “Pre-FAFSA” for planning purposes and encouraging coordination between the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Education.

Ways to Streamline the Form
31 questions on the current federal financial aid form — or about two-thirds of those relating to income and assets — ask for information already provided to the federal government on tax forms. Students should be able to authorize the IRS to forward that data directly to the Education Department in order to streamline the Federal Financial Aid process.

WE ARE OPPOSED TO THE COLLEGE STUDENT RELIEF ACT
It creates even more bureaucracy for students to deal with by taking away their choice and making them deal only with the federal government to get their federal student loans. The government is looking to take money out of YOUR POCKET, AGAIN.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

STOP the College Student Relief Act and related bills NOW!

This legislation STEALS THOUSANDS FROM STUDENTS by imposing a STUDENT LOAN TAX on all federally funded loans including Stafford, PLUS and Consolidation Loans.

We are opposed to this bill because it hurts the people it says it protects… the students!

Save student loan benefits and STOP the STUDENT LOAN TAX.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

FACT:
This bill is a political gimmick! Nothing more than a “good sound-bite.” It DOES NOT deliver on the promise to save students money.

FACT:
On January 2, 2012, the interest rate returns back to 6.8 percent, making the promised $4,400 in savings is IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE.

FACT:
80% of America’s colleges and universities chose to work with FFELP because it delivers better service and more choices to their students than the Direct Loan Program.

FACT:
The Direct Lending Program COSTS TAXPAYERS - over $16 billion.

FACT:
Lending Companies give students interest rate reductions -the Direct Loan Program DOES NOT.

FACT:
The Direct Lending Program has ADDED to NATIONAL DEBT - it’s borrowed $105 billion, but has only $89 billion to repay the money.

FACT:
H.R. 5 DOES NOT provide relief to students. Interest rates are for subsidized college loans ONLY.

FACT:
This plan DOES NOT help students go to college, NOT ONE additional student will be able to attend college because of this act.

FACT:
There in NO GUARANTEE that subsidies that HR 5 proposes to stop paying FEELP Loan providers will go back to support scholarships and education.

WE ARE OPPOSED TO THE COLLEGE STUDENT RELIEF ACT AND RELATED BILLS. MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES SHOULD BE TOO!
The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET, AGAIN.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

WE ARE OPPOSED TO THE NEW STUDENT LOAN LEGISLATION AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO!

The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET, AGAIN.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

If the new student loan legislation becomes law, it will:

1. double the fees for students who consolidate their loans, adding to student loan debt.
2. eliminate up to 2.25% in interest rate reductions for borrowers.
3. cause students to forfeit thousands of dollars in savings over loan term.
4. no longer allow borrowers to choose their Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) lender, forcing them to go with the Federal Direct Lending Program (FDLP).

FDLP: A Bankrupt Solution

Truthfully, the switch from the FFELP to the FDLP would end up costing us big time, in the long-run. However, the short-term implications of making the switch are scary at best.

Here are the facts:

• The FDLP owes the government $105 billion but only has $89 billion in loans. That’s a $16 billion deficit.
• The FDLP hasn’t saved a dime since 1997, instead running a deficit each year for almost 10 years. (Remember, this is the program that will SAVE us money, somehow).
• The FDLP has been BANKRUPT since 1997. If run like a “real business,” it wouldn’t even exist today.
• The FFELP has been successfully serving and benefiting borrowers for 40 years. Since the FFELP isn’t government-run, it is efficient and hasn’t had a single deficit year.

You help us defeat the new student loan legislation.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

WE ARE OPPOSED TO H.R. 5 AND YOU SHOULD BE TOO!
The government is taking money out of YOUR POCKET, AGAIN.

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.

Outright Deception?

Politicians are parading the benefits of the new student loan legislation while hiding its true features. Case in point is the Student Relief Act that was just passed by the House.

• Students were told they would have interest rates cut from 6.8% to 3.4%.
• Borrowers would save approximately $4,300 over the course of several years.
• The truth is that the 3.4% rate only applies for one year: 2011-2012.
• Purported savings of $4300 is nowhere near the real figure, as that amount was based upon a 3.4% rate from 2007-2012.
• This representation is not only blatantly false, but perhaps an outright attempt to mislead the public.

Prophecies Becoming Reality?

In a recent article I read college officials expressed their concern, “worried that the plan might end up helping even fewer students” than originally intended.

Unfortunately, this may soon become reality.

Hopefully, though, more and more people are starting to realize the smoke and mirrors machinations of our politicians as well as the potential outright deception that has been foistered upon us by our public servants (read politicians).

The real question may be, how much longer are we going to put up with it? Let’s just hope that this “short-term” snag doesn’t become a long-term pattern…

Take Action Now!

Call and E-mail Your Senator and Sign Our Petition.