No one will argue that politicians have the ability to manipulate the English language to their advantage. There is also no debate the interest-paid government funding for education is a reality and will continue to be a reality. In a country that is trying to struggle back from a recession, where our education system is spiraling out of control and we’re losing ground globally, it’s ludicrous that members of the Senate want to spend time, and their expansive-yet-slippery vocabulary debating why our students no longer need federal funds to obtain a college education.
According to the Committee of Education and Labor, “Former Secretary of Education and current Senator of Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, published an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post about the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Using the tired platitudes of excessive government control and swarming mobs of needy Americans (potential college students in this case)lining up with their spoons out to dip into the federal pot, Senator Alexander tries to make his point on some slippery (i,e. false) versions of the facts.
All the arm waving and posturing going on in Washington over the focus on our education system is incredible. Considering the dropout rates we have in this country, coupled with struggling students to manage simple writing and math when they do enter college, the focus on loans makes no sense.
Apparently, Alexander, a former Secretary of Education no less, feels that “The Education Department will borrow money at 2.8 percent from the Treasury, lend it to you at 6.8 percent and spend the difference on new programs. So you’ll work longer to pay off your student loan to help pay for someone else’s education — and to help your U.S. representative’s reelection.”
Okay – so the government is lending the money at a premium? Ever get a loan that wasn’t? (And yes, all those reminders from your mother about that money you borrowed ten years ago is considered a premium.) And Alexander’s other point? “So you’ll work longer to pay off your student loan to help pay for someone else’s education…”Actually, he fee differential between the borrowed and lent funds will go back into the US Education Department to fund new programs to subsidize Pell Grants to assist more low-income college-drive students, as well as other college-fund programs. There will be no extension of the deficit, and more students will get the potential to attend college, which increases their capacity to make more money, which in turn benefits the US economy.
If his constituents pay attention, his disapproval of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act certainly won’t get Senator Alexander reelected.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Thursday, April 1st 2010 at 11:55AM
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