http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/opinion/17collins.html
The New York Times
September 17, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Someday, a Bill Will Pass
By GAIL COLLINS
<snip>
The student loan bill actually has very little in common with the great
hairball that is known as health care reform. For one thing, so far, it
seems to be moving through Congress rather nicely.
For another, it's pretty easy to explain. It would simplify the
federally guaranteed loan system, save an estimated $87 billion over 10
years and use that money to increase aid to low-income students,
improve community colleges and raise standards for early childhood
education.
Let us stop here and recall how the current loan system works:
1) Federal government provides private banks with capital.
2) Federal government pays private banks a subsidy to lend that capital
to students.
3) Federal government guarantees said loans so the banks don't have any
risk.
And now, the proposed reform:
1) The federal government makes the loans.
Wow. You really do wonder why nobody came up with this idea before.
"We thought about this for a long time," said George Miller, the
chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. "Before, we
never had the horses to do it."
It is a tad depressing to imagine all those committees of yore, sitting
there and saying: "Gee, it sure would be nice to improve Pell grants
and community colleges. But everybody says we need that money to give
to the banks."
The House Republicans have a different proposal. Which, as
Representative John Kline of Minnesota explained, is to leave
everything the way it is and "convene a nonpartisan commission."
Perhaps there will come a time when the words "convene a nonpartisan
commission" do not cause people to topple over in depression and
despair. But it may take a while.
Just hours before, Senator Max (Futility is My Middle Name) Baucus had
unveiled the long-awaited product of his blue-ribbon, bipartisan
committee on health care reform. You will remember that the whole
legislative world came to a screeching halt so Baucus's group could do
its work. All summer long, the members floated above tawdry political
concerns and labored on a meeting of the minds. Now the final product
has landed, its wishy-washiness exceeded only by its total lack of
bipartisan backers.
"No Republican has offered his or her support at this moment," said
Baucus, ever cheerful, ever hopeful.
But never mind. Just when you begin to think that these people are
never going to be able to do anything, ever, here comes student loan
reform, scampering down the aisle, wagging its hopeful tail.
The bill actually got a couple of Republican votes in Miller's
committee, which is two more than Baucus has gotten on anything so far.
When it gets to the Senate, the Democrats plan to do one of those
reconciliation maneuvers that allow them to pass a bill with a mere
majority of votes, radical as that might seem.
If it all works out, Congress will have come a way toward fixing this
problem, at least when it comes to federally financed student loans.
There's already a new law that forgives part or all of the debt for
graduates who go into careers in public service. Terms will be easier
for low-income debtors.
But there's a lot longer way to go. The central problem with financing
higher education is that tuition keeps running ahead of the rate of
inflation like Secretariat closing in the Belmont. The assumption that
kids can just pay the bill with borrowed money has to be one of the
reasons schools aren't feeling more pressure to control costs.
"That's a very serious subject of conversation on my committee. We have
not come up with a good answer. We've come up with a lot of gibberish,"
said Miller, with winning candor.
Two-thirds of college students now borrow to pay for college.
<end excerpt>
Michael