I’ll stray a bit from the usual here. Since there is so much talk lately about student loan legislation, I just had to write about it. I don’t have any student loans at this point in my life. However, I know many people who still have outstanding loans. I also have friends with children getting ready to go off to college.
There’s a lot of legislation and proposed bills being talked about and how they are going to change the face of student loans and affordability for students. There’s talk about weeding out private student loan lenders and leaving the lending to those colleges in the Fedeal Direct Loan Program.
Well, how about that? I am not so sure that’s such a great idea. That takes out choice altogether and leaves students and their parents with one way to go. It does not enable people to get the best rates via benefits and incentives. It doesn’t give people a choice, period.
Maybe it doesn’t have an effect on me personally. But people I know and care about will be influenced by this, and it makes a huge difference in their lives. College is way more expensive than when I attended. Most people cannot afford to go to college without help via scholarships, grants and student loans. And with the high cost of college, people need a choice so that they have low rates and incentives that bring down rates even lower. Without these choices, we can have a big mess on our hands.
Sure, there are some higher-ups in government who have been talking about helping students, mainly low-income students, get to college and making college more affordable. However, are their new proposed bills really the answer?
