New House Bill's Right on the Money

Like many college students across the country, I dread the fateful summer day where I receive the ominous “Financial Aid Award Letter” email in my inbox. Too often have I experienced Homer Simpson-esque “Doh!” moments as I count the ever-increasing loan amounts listed by my name.

Well fret no more (or at the very least, fret less), as the House education committee passed a bill Wednesday that seeks to cut subsidies to student lenders and halve the interest rates on a key student loan program over the next five years. The bill also includes provisions that allow for increases in Pell grants, tuition assistance, and loan forgiveness. And better yet, the Senate committee is expected to offer even more extensive reform measures. It’s about time.

ES has shown that the recent controversy surrounding Sallie Mae and other student lending companies has been a long time coming, and it’s truly refreshing to see that Congress is finally getting its act together:

“For far too long, college costs have grown faster than families’ ability to pay them,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “With this bill, we are saying that help is on the way.”

But of course not everybody is celebrating. According to the New York Times, the Consumer Bankers Association was bold enough to claim that the bill was an “anti-student bill in pro-student clothing”, and they’re even playing dirty. Excuse me? Since when is an estimated $18 billion in expanded benefits to students considered “anti-student”? Surely you’re mistaken.

I guess the moral of the day is “better late than never,” and though the future of student loan reform remains to be seen, it gives hope to millions of debt-mired students that there is indeed (some) light at the end of the tunnel.