One Year Later: The Talking Points Are Getting Stale

February 26, 2009:  Obama Budget Envisions Move To Direct Lending in 2010

One year later:

• Wednesday:  Sallie Mae Vice-Chair and CFO Jack Remondi (Roll Call):  "Congress Must Back Student Loan Reform"

• Thursday:  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (Washington Post):  "Direct Student Loans:  A Better Way To Invest In Education."  This piece makes similar points to the conference call held with the press last week. 
  • Here is a link to his testimony to the House Budget Committee earlier today

How about a student aid summit to hash this out in public? 

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If you look hard enough, sometimes, you can find some humor in this whole debate when a talking point goes awry.  Thanks to the Chronicle of Education for doing some good old fashioned fact checking that I bet the representative wishes she (or her staff) had done first:

"Supporters of the bank-based system have warned that the continuing delay in Senate action may cause problems for colleges trying to prepare for the coming academic year. Rep. Cynthia M. Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, told Mr. Duncan on Thursday that the University of Wyoming is "caught in the crossfire" over the proposal to end the bank-based system. The university, she said, is unsure how to proceed and what to tell its students as it waits for Senate action.

Mr. Duncan has said that most colleges are already making the transition to direct lending on their own, with few or no problems, and he told Ms. Lummis that department officials were ready to work with any institution having such problems.

In an interview, the director of student financial aid at the University of Wyoming, David L. Gruen, expressed surprise at the congresswoman's comments at the hearing. The university has "everything in place to switch to direct lending beginning with this summer session in May," Mr. Gruen told The Chronicle.

Comments

[Politipotamus]

"The university has 'everything in place to switch to direct lending beginning with this summer session in May,' Mr. Gruen told The Chronicle," .....so he says....