Making College More Affordable

I received the below message today from the Center for American Progress -

As you know, the US House of Representatives passed a student aid bill last month, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR 3221), that will cut $87 billion in wasteful subsidies for student loan companies and instead put that money towards making college more affordable and accessible.

Now the bill's on its way to the US Senate, but student loan companies are doing everything they can to stop it.

Student loan giant Sallie Mae has already spent more than a quarter million dollars(that we know of) on newspaper ads trying to stop the bill, along with at least $3 million on lobbying. Another anti-student aid group hired the PR firm Qorvis Communications that offered to pay "experts" to write op-eds and appear on TV to criticize an investigation into AIG a few years ago.

To fight back, we need to make sure the newspapers know what actual students think of the bill. We're set up a system for people from across the country to email letters to their local papers and say that congress should invest in students, not banks.

Click here to write a letter to your local paper.

We've put up a sample letter & talking points to make it quick and easy, and you can use our online system to find your paper and send your letter with just two clicks.

Thanks for all that you're doing,

Pedro de la Torre III
Advocacy Senior Associate for Campus Progress
The Center for American Progress


If you are interested in this issue then check out the United States Student Association. The Nation did a great piece on the nonprofit last week, which you can read here.

Fortunately Obama is on our side -- speculation is that if the the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act makes it onto his desk, then he will sign it into law. This video came out in May --