Obama's healthcare "reform" legislation included a federal takeover of the college student-loan business. 

Obama touted this aspect of "reform" as a way to save $68 billion over the next 11 years. The savings would go to pay for expanded Pell Grants for low-income students and to help low-income graduates pay back their student loans.

But more is going on here than the standard Obama redistributionist impulse. Student loans have become a weapon to attack and control private colleges.

 Federal government involvement in student loans dates from the Higher Education Act of 1965. Federal interest-rate subsidies made loans to "qualifying" students more...