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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Dems Killing Access to Higher Education And Adding a Secret New Czar Too

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  September 17th, 2009 at 06:00 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

While we are all focusing on H.R. 3200, the House Democrats’ health care plan, we should at least glance at H.R. 3221, the House Democrats’ plan to kill off higher education access. (PDF)

The legislation is opposed by many major universities including Notre Dame, among others. Basically, the bill would shut down all private providers of student loans, drive up costs for universities, and become a bureaucratic nightmare for institutions of higher learning. The professors may be leftists, but the administrators have to pay attention to the bottom line.

The Director of Student Financial Strategies at University of Notre Dame warns in a letter to Congressman Miller, “Any legislation that eliminates choice and competition and mandates that all institutions adopt an all-government run program for the 2010/11 academic year is filled with immense risk and would create massive confusion.”

Get that? The Democrats want an “all-government run program” to provide people access to money to pay for college. And if they do that, then they can force universities to comply with lots of new rules or deny students the right to use federal student loans to go to particular colleges.

But it gets better. Boy does it ever get better.

§ 343 of the plan creates a Green Schools Czar. No kidding. A Green Schools Czar (and committee naturally) would examine the impact of more environmentally friendly universities and find ways to create even more environmentally friendly universities. Oh . . . I have an idea . . . if students need financial assistance and they are forced to go through the feds, the feds can simply tell universities to become compliant or they won’t let students use their student loans to go there.

What is so funny is that §312 of Obama’s stimulus plan also sent money to schools to become more environmentally friendly. That was the carrot. Well, this new law will become the stick.

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COMMENTS

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  • sccrenny

    You have to watch them every second! Just like 2-year-olds. Thanks for keeping on top of things.

  • izoneguy

    If he did NOTHING!!!

    Just stop….I know the disease of liberalism is strong in this one.

    And I know he is rushing because it 2010 he should get de-railed,
    so Mr. President – go ahead – make our year.

  • archer52

    When Glenn Beck was railing about the how the left was trying to “overwhelm the system” my friends laughed at me. “He’s insane.” They would say. One friend, who is very, very, bright, says he can’t watch Beck because he caught an episode where Beck was talking about conspiracies.

    However, the same friend now is having trouble getting his head wrapped around all of the activities, saying some just don’t make sense.

    As smart as he is, his blind spot is he thinks logically, people who disassemble functional systems for the sake of doing it, flummox him. He may see it, analysis it, but just can’t get why they do it.

    When I tell him it is all about the money and power, he tries to simplify it to more just faulty character; such as Obama overtly telling lies about healthcare, even though he is getting caught. I say it is the deal he made with those who polished him up and presented him to the public as a presidential candidate. He is the mouthpiece; they do the dirty work behind the scenes. He must give up his credibility if that gives them a little more cover to complete their agenda. (The speech is an example)

    My friend says Obama tells those whoppers because he is a lawyer, and a lawyer’s job is to present his client’s case in the best light at all times. Lying is part of that process. (Both of us should know, we spent two decades dealing with them in criminal courts as police detectives.) Obama’s client is Obama. So, lying to us to promote his own agenda is what he has been trained and excused to do.

    Either way, the left is going to do serious damage until we can reign in the numbers with the next election. The best we can do now is what places like Redstate are doing; expose their efforts to light and hope people react. Our best result will be to limit Obama’s influence to the edges of his front lawn. The left knows this and uses races to attack those who are critics.

    Unfortunately for them, the problem with that argument is that Obama, because of his election, removed a good deal of the guilt. Believe me, the left is now realizing this and it is driving them crazy. For them, it is like pulling out your favorite pistol and finding there aren’t any bullets left in it.

    Stay the course. This is still America.

  • Jack_Savage

    They are actually playing the race card in the case of the first black president ever elected, and see no contradiction whatsoever. The right is treating Obama like we would treat anyone else, which is truly post-racial, and the left is jumping all over the identity politics.

    I think white people are finally coming to the conclusion that there is no end to playing the race card, and we are finally ignoring it. If you can’t make it in America, where do you go?

  • JadedByPolitics

    If the left want’s to overwhelm the system for colleges and make their lives miserable I could care less. What will happen? private universities will be the better choice for students. Private Universities by virtue are more Conservative. I think this whole leftist push after WWII for everyone to go to college has destroyed the American worker. There is not to much in college as far as I am concerned that benefits the average worker out there and they turn out liberals in mass! I always find it amusing when a 4 year degree in Accounting has the same effect as my 2 year degree and I make MORE money then the norm because I have REAL WORK experience. The only thing the extra 2 yrs gets them is another 40K in debt.

  • NDPhog

    Maybe the administration should have thought of that before they invited in Obama and offered him an honorary degree for, for what exactly?

    Good grief.

    Disclaimer: I am a graduate of Notre Dame.

  • NeoKong

    No problem.
    All you need to do is sign your community service contract.
    If that passes Obama will be able to manipulate tens of thousand of students to do his bidding. Just think of the programs that will be mandated to students who receive aid. Think of the courses they can require universities to offer. They will become indoctrination camps.
    They can even push it back into grade school by mandating certain courses be taken to receive eligibility credits. Maybe all the kids will get to wear those spiffy looking grey hats with the big red star on them.

    Obama will try to tell people “If you are happy with your school choice then you can keep your school choice. All this plan does is give people more choices”

    This guy is even worse than we thought he would be. He makes Bill Clinton look like Ronald Reagan.

  • http://www.werushdaily.com Rightshift

    …states need to start ignoring Federal Laws that violate their 10th Amendment rights as well as are Unconstitutional. They have the power to nullify these actions within their states.

    Arizona HCR2014: National Health Care Nullification

    This too can be nullified. And after the latest statements from Sotomayor, it appears that the Supreme Court is on its way to becoming an Australian petting zoo… something about Kangaroos.

  • realskinny

    of curriculum also? If so, this billis really bad news.

  • tubaman

    Now, normally one could take offense to comparing Clinton to Ronald Reagan but I did find myself “fondly” remembering the comparatively carefree days under Slick Willies administration…boy is this ever worse! They do act like 2 year-olds!

  • mom2oneson

    I don’t see why the first part is bad? If the loans are subsidized the gov is paying the interest during school and any deferments. I don’t see why it’s bad other than places like sallie mae and banks and credit unions losing out on the interest? Subsidized or unsubsidized they are already gov backed. I just don’t get it why it’s so bad?

    I don’t think they should allow under 18 to sign for loans but apart from that financial aid is a really easy process. This is one thing that is done really well IMHO.

    I’m not saying the current set up is good either with free money being given out because it raises costs I just don’t understand why this specific move from private lenders to gov is bad when it’s already gov backed.

  • Kyle-MI

    NeoKong, have you been on a campus lately? They already are indoctrination camps. If they go any further left, they will pass North Korea.

    This is a politically very stupid move. Obama’s biggest supporters are the faculty and stupids of the universities.

    The irony is that despite their generally socialist views, the faculty and administrators know that there will be less money available and less freedom under this program. They know that they will be better off with the current, more capitalistic system of student loans. They believe that socialism is better for everybody else.

  • mom2oneson

    Great comparison!!!! That is exactly what it’s like!!! LOL!!

  • technokrat

    Erick can you explain how this is a government takeover? you say that in your post but don’t give any explanation. My reading of the bill simply says that the government is no longer going to allow private insurance companies to manage the federal loan programs it runs and instead administer them itself. Its hardly a government takeover when it is federal dollars being spent. The only thing this does is save the us all huge amounts of our tax dollars that are currently being skimmed off the top by loan management companies.

    Also how is it a secret for congress to put someone in charge of the effort to green schools and universities..? Its in the bill so by virtue of that its not secret..

  • abbynormal

    He was attending all the planning meetings to put all this legislation in place!

    They’re going to break this Nation by killing the middle class through taxes, skyrocketing energy costs, and now, indentured servitude via college loans.

    Thanks for keeping us informed. My representatives are going to relegate me to the “kook” file, but I?ll keep calling and writing.

  • Kyle-MI

    If we wanted an actual conservative, even effect, reform of higher education funding here are a couple of ideas:
    http://archive.redstate.com/blogs/kyleh/2006/nov/20/student_funding_ideas

  • http://www.RedState.com/ETCartman Kenny Solomon

    Courtesy of Hot Air……

    http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/17/great-news-in-class-rings-get-your-obama-tag-now

    snark
    I may order one of these beauties just to replace my Jimmy Carter class ring.
    /snark

    I’d add actual thought-out commentary, but I don’t want to be known only for “coarsening the dialogue”.

    Cheers !

  • jlucasmckay

    The current system appears to be basically just a hand-out to the banks. The terms and rates (repayment plans, everything) are set centrally, and the banks just do the paperwork. “Great,” you say – “the government sucks at paperwork.” But here’s the thing – afterwards, most people I know consolidate with the government directly anyway, so the government is buying paperwork it’s going to do over. In my experience, there’s been basically zip competition. Of course, perhaps there was some competition that was obscured from me.

    Now, I started reading the bill and noted that it was 210 pages long and decided to stop after the Pell grant increases. It may well be a piece of trash. But it always bugged me having a bank hanging around like a two bit real-estate agent when I signed my USA Stafford Loan promissory note.

    On a plus note, the student loan forgiveness program for armed services, FBI, CDC, police, firemen, etc. that GWB started was a big step towards having a meaningful G.I. Bill again.

  • mom2oneson

    and gov dictated interest rates and who qualifies for what type of loan? It seems more like these places just found a gov cash cow and are collecting.

  • mom2oneson
  • artinthewild01

    I live in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – we have a Mexican Chamber of Commerce. We don’t have a White Chamber of Commerce. As you well know there are many, many of these descripancies. As anglos in this area, you have to be careful – but this is world wide….Down here hispanics can wear their brown shirts but the anglos can’t wear a shirt with the confederate flag.

  • artinthewild01

    I could not b elieve when Obama went and spoke at Notre Dame – this is a catholic school, Obama believes in abortion….Many young people had their graduation ruined by this man… He should have gracefully bowed out, instead he, in his arrogance went to the graduation and while some might have welcomed him….others didn’t. It just didn’t make sense – but anymore, nothing does.

  • jlucasmckay

    I’ve got to amend what I said. The current capital expenditure on student loans is 4:1 private:government, so the banks currently do what banks do best. Apologies for the rant.

  • $peciallist

    the mountain range of stupidity of that comment..

    I better start packing

  • http://www.clinefamily.us pcnnc

    I received an email from the financial aid office of the institution where I’m studying for my PhD that had the following statement in it: “The Constitution is a living document.” Then afterward a small snippet about Sen. Byrd’s effort through legislation to increase students knowledge of the Constitution. It then has a link to a site, while containing some good information had nothing to say about the originalist perspective of the US Constitution.

    What is so ominous to me about this is that the school was just recently approved as a Title IV institution, which among other things allows students to apply for federally subsidized loans. When taking the email into account I cannot help but feel suspicious that it had a secondary motive of indoctrinating the concept of a “living document” into the skulls of some students.

    If the US government, and I don’t give a rats patooty who is in charge, has full control of student loans and the ever looming presence of the US Dept.of Edu. spooning out “educational memorandums” the government can then better control higher education content. For example, a simple prescreening of me would have revealed that I intend to study the relationship between worker and manager when an overt Christian ethos is present in management. That, and the fact I’ve spent 16 years in Africa as a missionary puts me in precarious position for loan approval.

    This government is making power grabs at every level of our society and personal freedoms. Yet, there are few voices in the wilderness of mass media investigating, much less making evaluative statements of such nonsense. If it were not for these few outlets of free expression, we could be wearing brown by the Fall of 2012!

  • mssouth

    Since the government doesn’t have any money of it’s own, WHO do you think will be actually paying for this? “We the People” will. Open you eyes, our taxes will be paying for this.

    That is what’s wrong with your picture! It’s not FREE MONEY!!!!! It will be my money and your money that will be paying for this!!!!!

  • glorybee

    1) ANY college that receives GOV money will be subject to GOV rules, whether that college is public or private – except Hillsdale, which does not accept GOV student loan dollars.
    2) Many middle class families do not qualify for GOV-backed student loans; not all student loans have ties to GOV.
    3) If GOV is the monopoly provider of student loans, at least 3 things wil happen:
    GOV will control College activities in ANY area
    GOV will control student requirements (can you say community service, I knew that you could)
    Tuition will rise outta sight as the GOV will just increase loans to students

  • mssouth

    Look a little further than your nose. It will be our tax money that will pay the interest when the government takes it over. The government doesn’t have any money of its own. The play with our money!!!!!

  • JSobieski

    You may think that is superior to the Status Quo—but I do not.

    In isoluation, this may not bother me. However, in the context of Obamacare, it just signals of worse things to come.

  • JSobieski

    When the government is the lender, it will start offering all sorts of left-wing ACORN-like opportunities for volunteer work to be done in lieu of paying the government back.

    The department of education will end up funding and expanding ACORN.

  • http://www.the41stvote.org rcov092

    Universities springing up screaming about the “red-lining” of education loans in the past and raking in the huge piles of cash from the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of Govt run Student loans and recruiting students from the crips and bloods. Then, when the liability to the taxpayers reaches 10 trillion dollars (like sub-prime) loans for houses, they will blame it on the policies of the past administrations.

  • danasdaddy

    Most colleges and universities already ARE indoctrination camps for the left!

  • mom2oneson

    What are you referring to? These loans are already government guaranteed and if they are subsidized the gov is already paying the interest during deferments. There is nothing wrong with my picture. Taxes or loans from China are already paying backing these loans and paying some interest.

    Also I qualified it by saying I’m not sure the current setup is good with free money being given up but that is a different topic if college financial aid as an income based entitlement program should exist or not. So far my two cents is I don’t think it should exist but I’ve brought it up before and it seems like the feelings on this board are that it should exist.

  • mom2oneson

    First of all they have to make an awful lot not to qualify if it’s income that is the reason they are not elgible.
    Second of all if they are getting true private loans and not gov backed this won’t make a difference to them.
    These are already gov student loans. I don’t see the drama over this like point #3 that already is going on with control and tuition. Look at all the funding public colleges get from the state too directly to the school not part of what is paid on a kid’s behalf through a pell grant or loan. There there is fed money too with things like TRIO.

  • Jack_Savage

    “Nullification

    When a state ?nullifies? a federal law, it is proclaiming that the law in question is void and inoperative, or ?non-effective?, within the boundaries of that state; or, in other words, not a law as far as the state is concerned.

    Nullification has a long and interesting history in American politics, and originates in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. These resolutions, secretly authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, asserted that states, as sovereign entities, could judge for themselves whether the federal government had overstepped its constitutional bounds, to the point of ignoring federal laws.

    Virginia and Kentucky passed the resolutions in response to the federal Alien and Sedition Acts, which provided, in part, for the prosecution of anyone who criticized Congress or the President of the United States.”

    Thank God for my fellow Virginians, Jefferson and Madison. I wonder if Joe Wilson feels that things have come back full circle?

  • baldego

    The banks are feeding at the trough on this one. The Feds guarantee repayment of all but 2.9% of any private loan they subsidize. The private lenders are still charging the student interest on the loan. Even though those interest rates are comparatively low compared to other loans (8-10%), charging that level of interest isn’t really justified. There’s almost no risk involved as the government steps in if the student defaults and pays the 97.1% remaining. If it ultimately saves the taxpayers money and expands access to grants/loans then I’m all for it!

  • Warrior

    Without leftist universities, the three-legged stool of liberalism would come crashing down!

    (Academe + Legacy Media + Democratic party)

  • Warrior

    Actually, student loans are one govt program I’m somewhat ambivalent about. It’s not a give-away, it widens opportunity for those willing to work for it and it results in a more educated population (in many cases, anyway).

    Still, like you, I do wonder whether the Fedrlgumint has the authority to do it in any event…

  • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

    Basically, the bill would shut down all private providers of student loans, drive up costs for universities, and become a bureaucratic nightmare for institutions of higher learning.

    I will accept your analysis that the bill eliminates private banks from the existing federal student loan/grant programs, but that would appear to be just a change in adminstration of existing programs rather than a fundamental alteration in the programs themselves.

    And I would accept that the consequence laid out in the second and third parts of this sentence are quite plausible because those are the consequences of almost every government program, especially those that are too rapidly rushed to implementation.

    It’s the first part that I don’t understand as a consequence of the new legislation.

    In particular, the new law would seem to leave intact state student loan/grant programs (which could choose to allow private agencies to adminster these programs) and also leave alone unsubsidized private loans to students (or to their families).

    Yes, the federal subsidized student loan/grant programs are being taken entirely from the private sector – but I don’t see how this become a shutdown of all private actors from issuing loans to students (or their families)

    Or is there a poison pill slipped there that I haven’t seen because of the obfuscatory language.

    There are quite a few scary things about this bill in terms of the new programs that it initiates that futher expands the instrusion of the federal government into higher education in areas such as facilities construction and further leaves schools more vulnerable to government mandates because of the federal government’s increased financial leverage. Also scary are the measures that also open the door to more federal intrusion into K-12 education.

    I’m referring In particular to Sections 102 College Access and Completion Innovation Fund as well as changes to Title III -V that I don’t understand but are hidden therein, according to other reports.

    These are quite sufficient grounds to block passage of this bill without substantial changes.

    However, I don’t see how the adminstrative changes to existing federal loan program – though probably not good policy – represent a fundamental change in the relationship between the feds and schools – either way, the federal government can still use its sponsorship of these programs as leverage for increasingly intrusive compliance mandates, whether or not this law passes.

  • flicka47

    Basically it is a different paper shuffle,correct. Private banks will no longer arrange the loans the gov’t is offering.I guess it would save the costs the banks tack on,but there is no new “fund” of money.
    So what’s the point of the paper shuffle?Since the curent interest being paid on these loans is artificial any way,there is no reason the gov’t couldn’t change the rate being charged ,right?
    So it’s another empty promise to provde something?That really isn’t being provded any different than before.
    So once again the Dems want to look like they are doing something,that they are not….

  • Warrior

    can administer programs far more efficiently and inexpensively than the private sector, right?

    Brother. I better start packing, too.

    555 to $pecialist!!!!!!!!

  • mom2oneson

    no risk..what a racket they have going on!

  • mom2oneson

    I love your sig line!!! AMEN!!!! I think that too and it removes the opportunity for someone – child or adult – to learn and get the skill for themself when you do it for them!!!!! (hijack over :) )

  • baldego

    “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime”.

  • azred

    They have poisoned the pill of killing this bill by adding the defunding of ACORN as an amendment.

    This is beyond sick.

  • sccrenny

    izoneguy are you related to Yoda? I love it!

  • imissopus

    You are correct. This bill is designed to get a hell of a lot of waste and fraud out of the system by eliminating the middlemen: the private companies that take the government’s money and hand it over to the students (keeping a percentage for themselves, of course.) Meanwhile, these companies don’t take on any of the risks if the students default; it’s the government that gets screwed there. When students do pay back loans, the government actually makes a little money back in interest, which could theoretically go into paying off that huge debt that people all of a sudden in the last six months suddenly got all concerned about.

    This is actually one campaign promise Obama is keeping. I’m not surprised it’s poorly received on this board…after all, Obama proposed it. I don’t even know why I’m bothering to explain the point.

  • nessa

    They need some competition!

  • DONTREADONME

    the banks that get the subsidized loans are acting managers of those accounts. The profit is the interest which is the incentive for the banks to take on the loans. Now if we cut the middleman out as you say, we have Government giving the loans. So, with the average salary of the Government above and beyond that of the private sector and with the huge expense of overhead and the bureacracy that is created this will end up costing the taxpayers less in the long run? You have to get a Govenrment job sometime in the sector of spending Government funds, then lets talk about the cost of public sector funding versus private sector subsidized loans.

    Either way, I still do not believe the Federal Government should be subsidizing any college loans. The State should be doing this, of course thats a different discussion.

  • DONTREADONME

    You’re a fool. It costs a hell of lot more to fund a super-bureacracy like the Federal Government, trust me I know. It would be more cost effective for the Government to give me the money to buy computers than it is to buy them through internal acquisition, and I would get them the better computers for far less and I still will be able to keep a profit.

  • redactor007

    Unfortunately, even private college students get federal loans. Without those loans, fewer people will be able to attend conservative colleges, which, as logic teaches us, is a downward spiral: the fewer people that attend the fewer staff the college can afford and thus the fewer students that they can provide for, etc..

    And you can bet that if it ain’t in there to begin with, the czar will make sure that no one who wants to attend a conservative college will get a federal loan, oh no, federal money will only be provided to students who go to federally approved “green” colleges, and you can bet that no conservative college would ever hold that title.