<p>Issues with student loan programs have been much in the news lately. Well, it turns out that the Clinton administration had a proposal to deal with concerns, but the Bush administration killed it:</p>
<p>"The Bush administration killed a proposal to clamp down on the student loan industry six years ago following allegations that companies sought to shower universities with financial favors to help generate business, according to documents and interviews with government officials.</p>
<p>The proposed policy, which Education Department officials drafted near the end of the Clinton presidency and circulated at the start of the Bush administration, represented an early, significant but ultimately abortive government response to a problem that this year has grown into a major controversy.’ <a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/30/AR2007043001930.html?hpid=topnews[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/30/AR2007043001930.html?hpid=topnews</a></p>
<p>this does not surprise me.</p>
<p>Doesn’t surprise me either ~ Seems they all knew about it and the Clinton Administration could have done something about it also. Our politicians take the easy way out and put everything into committees and proposals instead of dealing with the problems. ~ That’s government for you! All politicians are used to the financial favors they think it is the norm now.</p>
<p>Just a matter of time before someone realized that this was Bush’s fault.</p>
<p>The real problem with the Student Loan Industry is that lenders and schools who are doing nothing wrong are being so heavily penalized with these new rules while those who are deliberately violating the rules already on the books are putting money in the pockets of politicians. There wasn’t much wrong before all this recent hoopla…except with a couple of extremely LARGE lenders and a couple of isolated schools.</p>
<p>Now, though, you can expect the Schools to process your financial aid even slower and with more mistakes…because ALL of our training is being taken away. Turn-over will likely increase…which means newer and inexperienced employees processing FA applications which are already difficult with many years of experience. You can also expect to see larger increases in college tuition costs. Prior to this hoopla, lenders, guarantee agencies and state associates would hold training sessions to keep FAA’s apprised of Congressional Changes. Now, lenders are cancelling these much needed training sessions. At the training sessions, lenders and guarantee angencies would have stacks of pens, notepads, sticky pads, paperclips, etc which FAA’s could take back to their office. This meant such items did not have to be purchased by the school. I know in my office alone, just using these free supplied (many of which are from lenders who have NEVER EVER been on our recommended lenders list) has saved our office at least $5,000.00 per year (and we are a small office of only 7 people). It might not seem like much but talk to your FA Office sometime…the FA Office is the first department to face cut-backs…the last department to see raises…the last department to obtain updated computers, software, paint jobs, and repairs. A mere $5,000.00 allowed our office to travel to necessary training sessions for the entire year.</p>
<p>Just spend one day observing your local FA Office and you might understand how horrible Congress has made FA just within the last year.</p>
<p>When America was first being formed, the Founders toyed around with the notion that elected officials should not be paid. They reasoned that politicians served the country and the people; that politics is not a career, merely a service. They decided that it would be unreasonable for legislators to not be compensated because their work was very time comsuming. However, they still did not intend for politics to become the way they have become. Ben Franklin, especially, wanted term limits in place for all elected officials. George Washington is famous for being against politcal parties. We are getting further and further away from what the Founders had in mind for our country.</p>
<p>Look at the last two presidential nominees-- both were raised in upper-class northeast families, went to Yale, were members of an elite secret society, one has a family history of politicians, the other married a billionaire’s widow-- how are these people supposed to represent America when they have lived in an upper-class bubble their whole lives? </p>
<p>Sorry for the political statement, just had to get it out.</p>