Issue date: 5/16/07 Section: Campus

By Karina Martinez-Carter
The Daily Northwestern

When Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his wife, Michelle, graduated from law school, their combined debt surpassed their apartment mortgage for about eight to nine years.

"Cost is one of the biggest problems in higher education, and it's something you and I are aware of intimately," Obama said during a conference call Tuesday with representatives from several college newspapers.

With his experiences in mind, and the concerns college students on the campaign trail have voiced, Obama discussed his plan to restructure the student loan system to be more cost-effective and provide aid to more students.

Obama's plan focuses on eliminating the relationship between private lenders and universities, which he said would save billions in taxpayer's money. Instead of banks disbursing loans to college students through financial aid offices and then having the government make subsidy payments to banks, all loans would be distributed from the government through a direct loan program.

"One way we can make college more affordable is by reforming a wasteful system that profits private banks at the cost of taxpayers," Obama said. "Through a direct loan program, this year alone we would've saved $6 billion that could've funded one million need-based Pell Grants for struggling students."

Obama's proposition, which he originally pitched in 2004, comes in light of the rising cost of public and private universities and recent scandals involving illegal arrangements between school and private lenders. Over the past five years, according to the College Board, the cost of public universities for in-state students has ballooned 35 percent, and the cost of private colleges and universities has risen 11 percent. In February, Northwestern President Henry Bienen announced a 4.96 percent increase in tuition for the 2007-2008 school year.

"(The plan) doesn't solve all the problems, but by taking this one step we can start making college more affordable for every American," Obama said.

Continued...

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