The battle to make college more affordable has come down to a critical few weeks in the Senate. The banks and student loan companies already have spent millions of dollars on lobbying, PR firms, and advertisements in their attempt to stop reform and hang on to $87 billion in subsidies that could be going to help students.
Now Campus Progress is taking action. We’ve raised money to put this :30 second spot on cable TV and on Hulu in key states across the country:
We don’t have the kind of money student loan companies have, so we’re going to need your help spreading the ad on Facebook, Twitter, and email if we’re going to get the word out. Click here to help us spread the word.
Media outlets are reporting that 14 individuals at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) were arrested today at a regents committee meeting debating student fee increases.
The meeting was closed to visitors after repeated outbursts by students and union members.
Protesters chanted outside the building as the university Board of Regents committee voted to boost fees over two years. The full board is scheduled to vote Thursday.
Despite the public outcry, the regents OK’d a 32 percent increase to fees at all university campuses.
The vote comes amid an escalating budget shortfall in the state, totaling $21 billion.
The Apollo Group (the parent company of the University of Phoenix) revealed in its annual disclosure report to investors that the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Enforcement Division is looking into its “revenue recognition practices.”
It looks like this has something to do with the way that the company counts financial aid dollars as revenue. Since they have to reimburse the federal government when a student receiving aid drops out, the company could be in some real trouble if SEC finds that they have not been subtracting the reimbursements properly when reporting their “revenue.”
This comes at the same time as a lawsuit against the company for questionable marketing practices. The suit, filed under the False Claims Act, alleges that the company owes the government billions of dollars for compensating recruiters based on the number of students that they enroll. This practice is illegal under US education law, and an important protection for students, who could be pressured into expensive programs that will not ultimately help them, and taxpayers, who often have to foot the bill. The University of Phoenix is the largest recipient of federal student loan dollars in the US.
The company now has 443,000 students, which makes it bigger than the entire California State University System.
In May 2008, a civil action suit was filed in Nebraska when concerns arose that Nelnet, which is a higher education lender, was illegally coercing students to apply for federal student loans. This lawsuit has reemerged after sealed court documents proved these concerns to be true.
JPMorgan and Citigroup conspired with Nelnet to allegedly receive financial student loan subsidies by making false claims and illegally recruiting more borrowers.
The lawsuit is currently underway against JPMorgan, Citigroup and Nelnet for violating laws against offering financial inducements under the federal Higher Education Act.
The lawsuit claims that Nelnet hired telemarketers to aggressively push the government product and use false advertising to get more applications, such as telling students they would save thousands of dollars in interest by applying to their loan program. From this illegal practice, Nelnet has obtained millions of dollars in federal subsidies on student loans.
This was not the first violation of the federal subsidy that Nelnet has faced. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Education agreed on a settlement which allowed Nelnet to keep $278 million in disputed profits after it faced a similar lawsuit. After this incident, the company signed agreements with state authorities promising not to offer incentives to students in need of loans. With the recent lawsuit filed in Nebraska, it is clear that they had no intentions of keeping their promise.
The government could have intervened in the suit, but declined. If the government won’t do something about this reoccurring issue, it is time for students to do something. You can get involved in our Student Over Banks campaign by going to: http://www.studentsoverbanks.org/
A new poll by the nonprofit Pew Hispanic Center shows that Latinos in the Untied States value a college degree more than the general population, but that less than half of the demographic actually plans to attend a university.
Earlier this month, I wrote about the lack of any student opposition to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA), which would cut wasteful government subsidies to student loan companies, and use the $87 billion in savings to raise Pell grants, invest in community colleges and minority serving institutions, expand the Perkins loan program, and more.
As it turns out, I may have spoken too soon. There is now one student who, through a lender run campaign, has spoken out against SAFRA. A freshman at Vanderbilt University has signed up with “Protect Student Choice/Protect Local Jobs,” which is apparently being run by Qorvis Communications. The student would not say whether he has any student loans.
While industry has found one student in its campaign to protect “student choice,” Campus Progress and its coalition partners have been more successful. More than 10,000 students signed a petition either online or on their campus to support student loan reform on the National Wall of Debt Day of Action on September 16th, and more than 40,000 people have signed petitions on Facebook supporting reform.
Campus Progress is working with partners like the US Students Association and the PIRGs to mobilize students across the country for the Raising Pell Week of Action, October 6th – 8th.
Students are taking action to ensure that their Senators support President Obama’s plan to stop funding government subsidies to banks, and instead increase the Federal Pell Grant.
There have been some great pieces to come out this week about the political debate about Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) on that vast series of tubes we call the worldwide web. SAFRA would eliminate a government program (Federal Family Education Loan Program – FFELP) that involves large, wasteful federal subsidies to student loan companies, and use the $87 billion in savings to raise Pell grants, improve access and completion rates, invest in minority serving institutions and historically black colleges and universities, and more.
It should come as no surprise that when Student Loan Analytics explored the topic of student opinion on SAFRA, they found many student newspapers in support of the legislation, and none opposed to it. In fact, when they searched Google for “students who support FFELP,” they got a very familiar message:
No results found for ”students who support FFELP”
And why should students support FFELP? As the same blog has pointed out before, FFELP offers students little to nothing in terms of choice, despite lender claims to the contrary. Billions in additional need-based grant funding for low and middle income students seems, obviously, more valuable to both students and taxpayers than preserving subsidies for lenders. (more…)
Funding our Future is a campaign to pass a progressive federal budget for 2010 and ensure that our nation.s key economic choices invest in our education, spark reform of our health care system, and address climate change through cap and trade and clean energy investments. Click here for more info.
The Apollo Group (the parent company of the University of Phoenix) revealed in its 
In May 2008, a civil action suit was filed in Nebraska when concerns arose that Nelnet, which is a higher education lender, was illegally coercing students to apply for federal student loans. This lawsuit has reemerged after sealed court documents proved these concerns to be true.
Earlier this month, I wrote about the 
