No secrets: Contributions to Congress by Lenders
Anya Kamenetz at the Village Voice writes about H.R. 609, and mentions the following:
"Lenders and for-profit colleges contributed nearly four times as much to the leaders of the House education committee during this HEA reauthorization cycle as they did during the seventh reauthorization, in 1997-1998. As of 2003, Sallie Mae was both the largest student lender and the second most profitable company in the Fortune 500. They gave $185,000 to the members of the committee in 2003-2004, making the company the committee's single largest donor by far."
Note also that a recent 60 Minutes segment on career colleges mentioned this:
"Over the past two years, career colleges and lending institutions that benefit from government-backed student loans handed out more than a million dollars in campaign contributions to members of the House Education Committee. Half of that money went to the committee's two ranking members: Chairman John Boehner of Ohio and Buck McKeon of California."
Comments
The fed keeps raising the interest rates. Legislation to enact any number of different student debt relief laws (tax deductions, tax credits, re-consolidation, etc.) seems to take forever. I just read a letter from the AMA recommending immediate changes to enable students to take advantage of "historically low interest rates", that students be permitted to "reconsolidate", as well as other changes. That was forwarded to the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness back in July of '03. The same subcommittee currently has before it multiple pieces of legislation, any of which would permit some form of relief. Some of that legislation has been in that subcommittee since March (if I remember correctly).
Posted by: johnlysenko | September 26, 2005 08:34 PM