I take it back

In January I wrote my column on the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Since that time, the bill was packaged with the healthcare "fixes" bill and was signed into law Tuesday by the president. In that column I argued against the bill, and now I'm saying, "I was wrong."

I've done more research on the bill since then and have read estimates and projections of its effects and I have to say that it is probably one of the best things for college students since the GI Bill.

The act will eliminate private middlemen in the federal student loan process, where banks operate the loans on behalf of the government—and make a tidy sum doing so. By getting rid of this corporate windfall to banks, the government will be saving taxpayers some $68 billion over the next 10 years. That's not chump-change by any measure.

Furthermore, it will make an additional $36 billion in student loans and Pell Grants available to students, something we all very much need as tuition costs continue to skyrocket across the country as they have for the last 20 years. It also pegs Pell Grants to the rate of inflation, ensuring that they will continue to be effective over longer periods of time without further congressional action.

This bill will not push private lenders out of the market, particularly because they are already deeply involved in giving out their own student loans unsubsidized by the feds. They can keep offering all the loans they want, and now they won't be getting paid by the American people to do so.

This is a step in the right direction; away from the corporatism we see in the defense industry. The banks were getting a huge pay-off from the people to do something the government could easily just do itself for quite a bit cheaper.

More importantly, it is laying the groundwork for a true revitalization in our higher education; making it at least a bit more affordable for the average American to go to college, which benefits us all in the long run.

This has been a long-running theme in my column because I see it as it is, an issue that affects us all, whether or not someone ever sets one foot on a university campus. In the modern economy, if we aren't putting out skilled college graduates, we are never going to have anything near to the economic prosperity our parents enjoyed.

This is a big step in the right direction and as to everything I said before; I take it back.