Public Option Campus Revolt : The federal student-loan takeover gets booed in academia.

The Wall Street Journal ^ | DECEMBER 5, 2009

[george76]

There's encouraging news on that other Washington effort to force Americans into a government-run system. The White House plan to drive private lenders out of the market for student loans is igniting a backlash on campus and Capitol Hill.

the administrators have been afraid to speak as the Department of Education pressured them to drop private lenders and embrace the department's own Direct Lending (DL) program. The pending bill, which has passed the House but is stalled in the Senate, would ban private lenders from making federally guaranteed loans after July 1, 2010.

Congress has already enacted regulations in recent years to discourage making loans without a federal guarantee. And many lenders have quit the business. Now the White House and Democrats like California Rep. George Miller want to go further and convert students from private loans ...into government loans ... Think of this as a prelude to how Congress will rig the rules for any public option in health care.

The private lenders have been the most popular choice, while—big surprise—the government's program has a history of shoddy customer service. But before the bill has even come to the Senate floor, federal officials have been making unsolicited contacts to schools urging them to accept this "public option." In October, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to schools nationwide offering to help them "in taking the necessary steps to ensure uninterrupted access to federal student loans by ensuring your institution is Direct Loan-ready for the 2010-2011 academic year."

Schools got the message. The leader of a large university recently refused to discuss the issue with us on the record, fearful that the feds are taking names.

[Steamburg]

The government fears that some of these kids might actually become educated. If they control the purse strings, only the neutered and diversified will be funded.

[WestwardHo]

This delights me. We live near college town with the usual over-the-hill hippy, oddball liberal types, the last hold out for Obama bumper stickers. This ought to thin them out.

[pburgh01]

There was a picture here in the local Pittsburgh paper a student at Pitt who was protesting the G-20 was shown to be at another protest this past week,against mayor Ravenstahls tax on tuition. Gotta love liberals even the young stupid ones. They love their social programs, grants, government mandates, regulations UNTIL they actually have to contribute paying for them.

[rarestia]

I wonder if there’s a counter-movement to this sort of thing? I could see a group of conservative parents take the charge to push for robust college savings options for their children, but I’m sure the government would cast them aside as fanatics trying to get the next generation of conservatives educated.

I hate liberals. They are a blight on the social fabric of this nation. Giant knots in an otherwise beautiful tree of liberty. Perhaps it’s time to water that tree.

[Kevmo]

I hope this student loan program gets taken over by the Feds, it will be the quickest way to get acadamia to see that guvmint isn’t the solution to our problems.