Picking up the thread on the Higher Education Act (H.R. 4137), this bill actually addresses a lot of different things beyond the Pell grant situation, which I discussed last week. So to pick at the bill piecemeal, let’s take a look at the loan issue.

We all know that student loan debt is a big concern. Checking out a USA Today article called “Young People Struggle to Deal with the Kiss of Debt,” it looks like students on average were carrying around over $14,000 of debt as of 2006; I can’t imagine that this number will have gone down any. The article points out some interesting adjustments people are making, such as more students returning home to live with their parents while they pay off debt. A percentage (11%) even said that they’ve put off marriage because of money issues.

This bill aims to empower the Department of Education to regulate more of the private loans. Apparently, some lenders and college officials had set up illegal inducements to get students to enroll in certain loan programs, so part of this bill is aimed at cracking down on those illegal practices.

Generally though, the bill isn’t focused too much on the issue of loans, so there’s definitely more that needs to happen. Hopefully, whoever the next President is will guide the legislature towards some stronger remedies. Rising charge offs and loan defaults are telling signs that this situation isn’t getting better, and it only adds further pressure to our national banking situation, which has taken a big enough hit from defaulting mortgages.

You can keep track of all the fun with this bill at the GovTrack.us Web site.