New Bills Could Cut Federal Student Aid and Loans Again
These four agencies represent the Federal Family Education Loan Program and their response to these two new bills is pretty scary. According to them the two new bills would cut more than $17 billion in funding to FFELP lenders and guarantors that is used for Pell Grants and other forms of aid.
"The bills make substantial cuts to the FFELP by reducing special allowance payments, increasing lender-paid origination fees, and reducing loan insurance. A preliminary assessment of these cuts suggests that the program will be changed permanently,""Borrowers will likely lose many, and in some cases all, of the borrower benefits currently offered by lenders." -says the letter sent by representatives of the FFELP.
The representatives of the FFELP go on to say that the bills would hit the middle income students that do not qualify for the expanded Pell Grant assistance the hardest and would cut overall funding to the FFELP by a whopping 70% over the next 5 years.
My response to these bills is almost disbelief. In this day and age when college is increasingly difficult to afford for the middle and lower class we are cutting funding to the largest source of federal student aid in the country by 70%? As if the Bush administration hasn't cut enough already now our democratic congress is betraying it's constituency again. The Bush administration may care about education for the wealthy but they certainly do not care about education for the everyone else and our new congress is proving no different.
I am a middle class American and my children are 7,8, and 1. I have raised them to place education in the highest regard only to see my country tell me repeatedly, "We don't care if your children receive the education they deserve." I love this country and it's people dearly but I have not been represented in this government for quite some time. Tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, loopholes in tax law that allow corporations to send all of their money over-seas tax free, the increasing cost of education, the constant incentives to corporations to send jobs overseas, and the already insane cost of health care and health insurance are all factors that could drive me to leave the place I was born and the place I love. These new bills are just anther straw on the back of the middle class....I have no idea why this country cannot come to the realization that the middle class drives the economy.
Stop worrying about whether an elected official cheated on his wife, what religion he is, or if he made mistakes 20 years ago and get us someone in office that will REPRESENT THE MIDDLE CLASS. We have to find ways to raise the average level of education of the middle class so that they can make reasonable decisions about the course of this country. The lower the average level of education in the middle class the more they will care about political buzz words, mud slinging, and the issues that politicians talk about instead of the issues that matter. For example, you will hear Hillary Clinton and every other candidate talk about education. You won't hear a single soul ask them about this bill and they certainly won't offer up any information about it on their own.
