Here is an email from Eugene Holloway, a Maryland Attorney, on the rising cost of college education.



Eugene writes:



When I attended law school at George Washington U in 1969, the tuition was $1,900 a semester. I worked my way through and had no debts when I began to practice law.



Later, student loans became the norm. The loans were subsidized, encouraging students to become indebted rather than build sweat equity in themselves. Student loans also took parents off the hook for saving to pay for their childrens’ education. The result was still more government dependency.



Screwing up the marketplace with subsidies, drove up the price of education, encouraged institutions to grow based on government support, and placed undue emphasis (economically) on higher and frequently useless education.



We should expect the higher education market to suffer a similar fate to the real estate market, where subsidies, encouraging people to buy what they could not afford (and did not need) led them to a result that, when compared to their investment in time and treasure, was uneconomical.



Eugene Holloway

Fannie Mae Freddie Mac Mission

We are a shareholder-owned company with a public mission. We exist to expand affordable housing and bring global capital to local communities in order to serve the U.S. housing market.

Fannie Mae Limits

exists to expand affordable housing

Federal Student Aid Mission

Organization and Core Mission



Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S. Department of Education, ensures that all eligible individuals benefit from federally funded or federally guaranteed financial assistance for education beyond high school. Located in Washington, D.C., and ten regional offices, its 1,000-person staff consistently champions the promise of postsecondary education and its value to American society.



Federal Student Aid was formed as a result of the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965. To face the challenge of modernizing the delivery of student financial aid, this legislation named Federal Student Aid the government’s first Performance-Based Organization (PBO).



Federal Student Aid’s five core objectives are to integrate systems, to improve program integrity, to reduce program costs, to improve human capital management, and to improve products and services.

To consistently champion the promise of postsecondary education and its value to American society

Federal Student Aid Core Objectives

Integrating systems

Program "Success"

$21.8 billion in Direct Loans were awarded to 2.9 million recipients in FY 2008, excluding consolidation loans. Funds were borrowed from the US Treasury.

FFEL funds are provided by private and non-profit lenders, insured by loan guaranty agencies and reinsured by the federal government. $52.9 billion in loans were delivered to approximately 6 million FFEL recipients in FY2008.

Perkins loans are made through participating schools to undergraduate, graduate and professional students. These loans are offered to students demonstrating the greatest financial need. Undergraduates may receive up to $4,000 a year and graduate students may receive up to $6,000 a year based on a student’s need and a school’s available funding.

success

help out

consistently champions the promise of postsecondary education and its value to American society.