Email Activism - Federal Student Loan Programs

People For the American Way - Tell Your Senators to Stop Draconian Budget Bill

Having recently being a recipient of federal student loans (and other student loans), and also being a person who will likely be paying them into my fifties, cuts to student loan programs are close to my heart. Even though I have mine and they can't cut em, I think that those who come next should have the same opportunities that I had, if not better. That hasn't been the track record so far, and that's not the direction things are currently headed in.

I was talking to my mom yesterday, who has been doing research into student loans for a big consumer awareness article. Back in her day as a college student, student loans were part of the defense budget. I think that's a great definition of defense, because an educated population is probably the best defense against threats to liberty. And it works equally well against threats domestic and imported. I know we aren't in such enlightened times, but I think that's a good way to look at education. It is vital to our national security, if for no other reason than to maintain our economy. While I'm not suggesting that it be moved back to the Department of Defense (although we all know they have the budget to spare), I do think we, as a Nation (capital on purpose), need to think very long and hard about the role of education for the future of the nation. I could very easily go off on a tangent about conservatism being about mortgaging the future for the enjoyment of the present, but I want to stay on point here.

Let's conduct a thought experiment. Let's completely cut federal student loans. Let all students compete for financing in the market of lenders and academic institutions. What happens? I can see a lot of mid-term effects. In the short term, only the credit worthy (read: already rich) and the academic all stars go to college. I can speak from personal experience, I became a consistent academic achiever in my graduate program. Prior to that, I was a lot of potential with not a lot of results. So, my college, and subsequent graduate education would have hinged on the credit worthiness or wealth of my family. I probably would have gone anyway, though I don't think I would have gotten my grad degree. As demand for colleges falls off, we should see prices for education decrease at your typical college (Top Brand Name Schools(tm) will probably always be able to maintain a price premium, but not everyone can be a TBNS. Takes time and money). We should see some colleges fold. Probably mostly second tier private institutions and small lib arts colleges. That will create a surplus of professors, driving salaries down, reducing the number of people going into academia, eroding the establishment even further. The loss of increased knowledge will likely have larger effects on the economy, particularly in areas like medical devices, semiconductors, and other innovation heavy sectors. As the rest of the world continues to fund their students, possibly even in American Universities (the stars of the world's education system), the USA loses out more and more. Eventually you have the rich few and the poor many, with b-rate educations. That doesn't seem like the country that Thomas Jefferson envisaged.

Talk to your local Republican. Tell him or her to hold off on some tax cuts, and expand the federal student loan programs, rather than cut the tax bill of the rich and increase the debt load of the rest of us. Explain that this is about more than now. That it is about our national defense. Hell, most of them went when it was officially part of our national defense. Demand the same they got. It's only fair.