More Misleading Student Loan Commentary
Diane Auer Jones seems to have gotten the memo. Over at the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Brainstorm blog, Jones, a former assistant secretary for postsecondary education, continues the trend of poor commentary on student loans from former Republican education officials kicked off by Tennessee Lamar Alexander earlier this week. And the intentionally misleading twisting of the facts makes for one heck of a read. Take a sec and pop over there and then we’ll get down to some fact-checking.
Because the piece has a lot going on, let’s go through it one step at a time.
Jones writes:
Because the piece has a lot going on, let’s go through it one step at a time.
Jones writes:
On one hand the Administration is trying to garner support for another jobs bill, yet on the other, it wants to eliminate an entire industry.No matter how you run the numbers, the entire student loan industry will NOT be eliminated. In the doomsday scenario, about one-third of the 35,000 jobs–about 11,550–could be lost, but it’s also possible that jobs could be gained. No one knows for sure. If there are losses, they are going to be in two areas: marketing and origination. Traditionally, loan origination means just moving the funds from the lender to the recipient. The student loan companies have twisted this a bit to include a series of amorphous functions that do not have a level of cost or
