Along with the historic overhaul of the nation's health-care system may come a sweeping change to our student-loan system.
While one version of health-care reform has passed and is on its way to President Obama for his signature, a separate reconciliation bill that now heads to the Senate has attached to it a move to end the federal government's subsidies to private student-loan lenders.
The House passed this legislation last year but the Senate has yet to take it up. Now, presumably, they will. And if it passes, it could be a good thing for some students.
Right now, the federal government assumes the risk for the loans that private lenders make to student borrowers. So why not have the government cut those subsidies to banks and instead give the savings to needy students? Under the proposal, as much as $60 billion would be freed up over 10 years, providing much-needed cash to the Pell grant program, as well as to help pay for other student aid and, too, for health-care reform. And banks would still be hired to service the loans.
Certainly, any way to cut government costs seems like a powerful idea right about now.
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Anyone that's still pissed about the HCR bill may want to take a bit of a pause and read up on this.
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