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.
Last week I wrote about a new campaign by loan companies called “Protect Student Choice.” The campaign is being run by Qorvis Communications, a controversial PR firm.
Thanks to YouTube’s “studentloanreform,” we can now see that the firm has had a desire to astroturf on this issue since at least 2007. Mr. or Ms. Studentloanreform posted a presentation by the company to the 2007 Legislative Conference of the National Council of Higher Education Loan Programs, a student loan industry association.
Check it out:
My favorite part: the fact that they photoshopped Hillary Clinton’s head onto George Bush’s body.
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…)
“If we don’t have climbing walls and sushi bars in our universities, does that make us un-American?”
So asked a panelist in a half-joking comment Thursday about the gravely misplaced priorities of higher education institutions. Five speakers, including Robert Shireman, the deputy undersecretary of Education for the federal administration, met at a discussion hosted by the Education Sector and Washington Monthly at George Washington University. In light of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) that is currently before congress, the panelists offered up specific strategies to improve the system with the goal of increasing affordability, graduation rates, and overall quality of education. (more…)
One of the arguments often made by student loan industry lobbyists and their friends is that, by providing loan companies with huge, wasteful subsidies, students get something very valuable: a choice of lender.
Check out this table of the “choice” students have when selecting a lender for the Federal Stafford Loans, which was compiled by the Student Lending Analytics Blog:
In an op-ed in Forbes.com yesterday tactfully entitled SAFRA Stinks, the CATO Institute’s Neal McCluskey argues against legislation that would end wasteful government subsidies to student loan companies, and use the $87 billion we will save to make college more affordable and accessible. Unfortunately, his argument is based almost entirely on his free market ideology, rather than an assessment of the current state of education and a desire to solve concrete problems.
Here are his major arguments and our response, one by one:
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Earlier this month, I wrote about the 
In an op-ed in Forbes.com yesterday tactfully entitled