Move To Clean Up Student Loan Racket
Aid to students is a big business in the U.S. This year it comes to $18 billion dollars in bank subsidies, mainly for students in low-income families. It is customary for schools to provide an office to advise students on how and where to get the money.
Investigations by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and others have uncovered a widespread practice by lending institutions who engage in what is, in effect, bribery of school officials to win the contracts for their companies. They paid for meals, trips, cash payments, the employment of college personnel and similar perks.
Both the House and Senate took action to halt this distasteful practice. In the Senate, Edward Kennedy played a leading role in the enactment of such legislation. His bill won overwhelming approval, 78 to18. In the House of Representatives, a similar bill passed by 273 to 149.
Cuomo moved quickly to implement the legislation. As of July 21, Cuomo announced a settlement with College Loan in the sum of half a million dollars. It is the 11th settlement, and the money will go into an education fund set up by Cuomo.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
