Stealing from Our Children: Why You Should Be Outraged Over the Student Loan Scandal

Over the past few weeks, the media has begun to report a major scandal involving the United States student loan industry. Apparently, some pretty big players in this industry, including Sallie Mae, America's largest student loan lender, and Citigroup, which manages over 34 billion dollars in student loans, are involved in the scandal. These lenders are accused of providing "financial kickbacks" to schools based on loan volume, paying for university officials to take exotic vacations, and even allowing lenders to staff university "phone banks."

These are some pretty hefty charges, and are no surprise in light of recent scandals like the Enron and MCI Worldcom debacles. As of Friday, April 13, the New York state attorney general was continuing to expand his probe to include more and more lending institutions. The American public should be considerably outraged by this current scandal, because it involves our children and it involves our future. The ongoing probe into student loan lenders has clearly revealed that in many cases, students were talked into loans with expensive interest rates that they could have gotten cheaper elsewhere. Even a half of percentage point could mean an extra tens of thousands of dollar over the life of some student loans.

As a recent college graduate, I know how quickly student loan debt can start to affect your life. You just graduated, you're lucky if you have an entry level job in you're field, you're trying to get set up on your own for the first time in your life, and to top it all off, you owe $100,000 for the four years you just spent in college. Those payments can add up quickly, and having that much debt can cripple your ability to get any additional credit (think car loans, mortgages) for years to come.

Now some of the biggest financial institutions in the United States are accused of predatory lending practices in their student loan businesses. This seems particularly heinous because of the real victims involved: students. Our young people. The future of America. Engaging in business practices that have the potential to financially cripple a generation of students should not be something that is looked upon lightly. A rich executive should not get to decide whether or not a student can afford her first home, just so that he can buy another yacht.

It is time for us to stand up and say that enough is enough. Corporate profits should not be put ahead of the well-being of our children. If you have a student loan through one of the institutions involved, call them and ask them what is going on. Write to your alma mater and make sure they are not involved in these predatory lending practices. If we don't speak up for our nation's youth now, what will be the next scheme corporate America concocts to steal our nation's future?