The Congress just voted to take over $60 billion in subsidies to the banks and invest it in aid to college students. The students beat the banks; hard to believe but true.
The reconciliation bill that featured the final “fixes” on health care also included a transformation of student lending. The Congress voted to move to direct government lending on student loans, saving over $60 billion on subsidies to private banks over the next decade (for loans the government had to guarantee anyway). It devoted the money to increasing the size of Pell grants, indexing grant levels to inflation, investing in community and historically black colleges, and limiting repayment of student loans to 10% of a graduate’s income. As Joe Biden would say, this too is a Big F…g Deal, in fact, the largest increase in student aid since the GI Bill after World War II.
This extraordinary achievement would not have happened without the leadership, energy and grit of Big George — Rep. George Miller, Chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and key ally and strategist for Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Miller has made making college affordable a personal mission. He developed the direct lending bill, ushered it through the Committee, and shepherded it to passage in the House. Understanding that its fate in the Senate was, to say the least, uncertain, he worked with Senator Harkin, Conrad and others to place the legislation in reconciliation – where it would only require 50 votes to pass the Senate.
And it was a good thing he did. The banking lobby – led by Sallie Mae – spent literally millions opposing the legislation. (see the CAF report http://www.ourfuture.org/report/2010031222/money-changers-senate) They enlisted high-powered DC lobby firms, including the former senate staffers of key Democrats. As we reported, six Senators– leading recipients of the banks’ political contributions – wrote a letter to Senate leader Reid warning against putting direct lending in the reconciliation bill. Two others were reputedly ready to vote against it.
Senator Conrad, head of the Budget Committee, was about to drop direct lending from the bill, worried about arguments, spread by the banking lobby, that the aid increases were greater than the bank cost savings. Miller and Harkin intervened, and insured that updated numbers were used – and made the case that adding direct lending would help the bill’s prospects in the House, not hut it. And in the end, direct lending stayed in the bill.
This is leadership worth celebrating. Millions of low wage families will get more help for educating their children. Millions of college grads will have a ceiling on the burden imposed by their student loan debts.
Miller is a realist. He knows that colleges are in financial crisis across the country, and that tuitions are soaring. This country is going to need a fundamental reordering of how we price and pay for college if the next generation is to get the education it needs. One thing is clear. As that debate goes forth, education advocates will be blessed with a resourceful, powerful and tenacious champion in Big George.
