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Chris Dodd Pushes for Student Loan Transparency

No sooner had I put together my last post, when I saw a new group on facebook being pushed by my pal Matt Browner-Hamlin, who is currently working for Chris Dodd, that aims to improve the loans offered to college students. The group is called Student Loan Transparency Now! and it's set up to highlight a bill that Dodd recently introduced into the banking committee. From Dodd's campaign blog:

Recently Senator Dodd introduced the Private Student Loan Transparency and Accountability Act. The Dodd legislation extends new protections to all private student loans in order to improve transparency, prevent unfair and deceptive private lending practices and eliminate conflicts of interest. CNNMoney.com says "Student lenders would have to better disclose their rates and would be banned from discriminatory underwriting practices under legislation introduced Friday by U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn" Accounting Web has more on what the bill does, as well as complimentary efforts being done by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Check out Dodd's Senate sight for more info on the bill. This San Francisco Chronical article is a good place to start for background on this important issue.

Please help spread the word on the Private Student Loan Transparency and Accountability Act! It's not often that politicians in DC pay attention to the needs of young people, and we really need to try and reward politicians that do, with attention, volunteering, donations, etc. If more pols would push legislation like this I'm guessing it wouldn't be nearly as hard to attract young people to the polls on election day.

BTW, if you haven't read it already, please check out the Nation article about Matt's jump to the Dodd campaign. Matt's convinced me: at the moment, if Al Gore doesn't run, Chris Dodd has my vote. Only a few million more voters to go!

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June 13th, 2007 10:50am
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Beyond Transparency - College Cost Reduction Act

Submitted by Michael Connery on Wed, 2007-06-13 22:06.

This is a great bill, and kudos to Dodd, who has taken some really great positions (even if he doesn’t have snowballs chance in hell at the nomination, maybe he can shake things up and try some interesting tactics). But it’s only part of the equation.

Even with greater transparency, you still have straight up access questions because of debt burdens and lack of aid.

Dodd (and all the candidates) should call for the passage of the College Cost Reduction Act in the House:

  • Pell Grant goes up by $500 a year to $5200.
  • Expansion in loan forgiveness: Providing loan forgiveness for first responders, law enforcement officers, firefighters, nurses, public defenders, prosecutors, early childhood educators, librarians and others. Revising policies to allow public servants to have their loans forgiven after 10 years.
  • Upfront tuition assistance to undergraduates who commit to teaching in underserved public schools (Sort of nationalizing Teach for America, way to go Wendy Kopp)
  • Increased federal loan limits.
  • Paying for it all, plus a $750 million spending cut, with reductions in lender subsidies.

That's a really great sounding bill...

Submitted by Alex UA on Thu, 2007-06-14 07:46.

And I agree that all of the candidates would be wise to push the House to pass this. But here’s a question: given that we have four Senators running for President, wouldn’t it be better to pressure them to introduce a version of the bill in the Senate? Does House passage make a Senate bill more likely?

Student Loan

Submitted by tokmik on Sun, 2008-10-19 15:38.

If I was making $250,000 or a more a year, I'd be more than happy to pay more in taxes to help this country out. The middle class are hurting now a heck of a lot more than the mega-wealthy.

Instant loan