With the stroke of a pen today, President Obama sealed a hard-fought victory for students. The Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act was signed into law this morning at the Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria Campus. Simply stated, today our country chose to invest in college students over bank profits. Nice.
The law ends wasteful subsidies to private lenders and directs over sixty billion dollars of savings into financial aid programs – like the Pell grants program, the cornerstone financial aid program that allows low-income students to attend college every year. It also invests billions of dollars in community colleges and minority-Serving Institutions.
We can’t overstate what a battle this was for students versus the banks. As our friends at Campus Progress figured out:
The lending industry is no stranger to Capitol Hill. Since 1999, the industry as a whole has spent at least $62,567,134 lobbying Congress on everything from changing interest rates on student loan consolidation to protecting their federal subsidies. If, as an industry, they decided to help students instead of lobbying (usually against [students'] interests), they could have forgiven the loans of 2,696 borrowers (at the average level for 2008 graduates), provided grants of equal size to the 2009-2010 maximum Pell grant to 11,694 students, or reduced monthly loan payments by $100 for 52,139 struggling borrowers for a year.
Rock the Vote was at the signing ceremony. Brass band. Al Franken. Student leaders. Cabinet Secretaries. We had it all. Here are some pictures from the balcony:
An image from the balcony of the President's bill signing.
President Obama talks about reform and the savings of $60 billion which goes back into funding student aid.
President Obama signs the bill into law.
Tags: Barack Obama, Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, Northern Virginia Community College Alexandria Campus, student aid
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Jason Bio: Email the author at: blog(at)rockthevote.com |
“If, as an industry, they decided to help students instead of lobbying (usually against [students'] interests), ”
Oh, he’s coming down on banks because they want to get paid. They expect to hold to the agreements in their contracts. Gotcha.
The sheer audacity of a financial institution to expect repayment of a loan. No wonder our benevolent government is going to step in and be the ONLY provider of student aid thereby gaining a tighter grip on all education.
“they could have forgiven the loans of 2,696 borrowers (at the average level for 2008 graduates),”
He means the banks could have written off the loans instead of trying to collect them. Again, who would have thought a bank would want to make a profit? Perhaps, if those 2008 graduates paid attention in business classes, they would know that they have to repay the loans.
Aren’t banks publically held? If I were a stock holder, I’d not like it if a company I invested in let money slip through their fingers and the stock dropped.
All sarcasm aside, I have student loans. My interest rate is low because I make payments and communicate. You can’t just stop paying and expect things to remain the same.
It’s accountability. Sure, some banks took advantage. They should be regulated. But, to pull it all in to the Gov, that’s yet another step toward Socialism that I just can’t swallow.
If only people studied history instead of “Social Studies”. Perhaps we wouldn’t be so eager to repeat mistakes.
Okay, YES. THANK YOU. WE, the student population, need that money more than any multi-billion dollar banks at the moment, and I think they have gotten enough already, right? I really can’t see how this is socialist AT ALL. Republicans tend to throw that word out at anything that doesn’t quack right. I think it’s about TIME that our government decided to invest in it’s own future!
Drill, baby drill!
Waitng for the RTV blog post about offshore drilling. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!
BAHWAAHAAAHAAA
How does that little number fit in with your renewable energy campaign? Cat got your tongue? Afraid to criticize the Messiah? Let me know when you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor!
Caroline,
“Its” is the possesive, while “it’s” is the contraction for “it is”. It’s appalling what is charged for higher education (which forces one into debt slavery at a very young age) when folks come out the other end of the pipe not knowing how to read or write.
On the topic of banks, where is the outrage that the Obama administration continues to kowtow to the banking industry and appoints (and maintains) one of the cheif architects of the AIG, Bear Stearns, and TARP swindle of the American taxpayer (the one and only former NY Fed Governor, Tim Geithner) as Secretary of the Treasury? Oh, I forgot. Dems are the party of the little guy. Forgive my ignorance.
BAHWAAHAAHAAA