Sorry students of America but if you hope to get financial aid from the US government, don’t hold your breath for a better deal down the line. The newly elected House Majority leader(sic) doesn’t support the government helping you out. He instead supports his moneyed supporters – for profit colleges and trade schools and private school lenders.
As reported in Sunday’s Washington Post Boehner runs the Freedom PAC which over the last 10 years has given $2.9 million dollars to GOP lawmakers.
In the most recent election cycle, 2003-2004, the Freedom Project received $572,719 from individuals, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission and analyzed by PoliticalMoneyLine. More than half of that, $292,570, came from employees and lobbyists for private student lending companies and for-profit academic institutions.
Individuals affiliated with the private student-loan industry gave the PAC $220,020, including $52,670 from officers of Sallie Mae. Sallie Mae was established in 1972 as a government-sponsored organization that over the past decade has become privatized, and is now a Fortune 500 company specializing in student loans.
Boehner’s PAC received $72,550 in donations from employees and lobbyists from for-profit colleges and trade schools.
So is it any surprise that Boehner has sponsored legislation that would restrict the ability of the US Dept of Education to cut fees to make government loans less expensive.
During the current congressional session, Boehner’s committee endorsed his legislation to allow the for-profit colleges and trade schools to gain millions of dollars in federal subsidies.
The measure would eliminate 1992 regulations designed to prevent the for-profits from signing up unqualified students and collecting student loans for tuition. Boehner would bar traditional colleges from denying credits earned at for-profits on the grounds that the for-profits are not accredited.
I find that last statement particularly interesting in the light of trying to increase academic excellence and learning. It seems to say that you can go to an unaccredited college and force accredited colleges to accept the course work. You mean I can get a loan to take a course on the Internet and the University of Washington must accept it toward graduation even though the program is not accredited. And all just because I got a loan from a private lending source.
So this is the Republican agenda to support education. Support for profit colleges even if not accredited and support private school loans over US government loans.
