Submitted by Alex Hamilton (not verified) on July 17, 2008 - 8:41am.
It's an uninformed, complete distortion of the role of guaranty agencies to say they "serve as little more than a pass-through of federal funds from the Department to the lender -- a middleman at its finest." If that were true, why then does the New America Foundation-supported Direct Loan Program have HIGHER lifetime default rates in every category of loans, including both Staffords and PLUS loans? Somewhere in there is a value-added that saves taxpayers billions of dollars and students a lot of misery. In addition, what difference does it make that college access may not have been one of its orginal purposes, an assertion I'm not sure is even true? What matters is what is happening today. Guaranty agencies provide a wide range of college access services to low- and middle-income families, besides helping millions of students avoid default. Finally, who needs think tanks supported by tax-deductible donations? We already have the Congressional Research Service, state universities, members of Congress who are really smart and the Military television channel.
NAF Can't Handle the Truth
It's an uninformed, complete distortion of the role of guaranty agencies to say they "serve as little more than a pass-through of federal funds from the Department to the lender -- a middleman at its finest." If that were true, why then does the New America Foundation-supported Direct Loan Program have HIGHER lifetime default rates in every category of loans, including both Staffords and PLUS loans? Somewhere in there is a value-added that saves taxpayers billions of dollars and students a lot of misery. In addition, what difference does it make that college access may not have been one of its orginal purposes, an assertion I'm not sure is even true? What matters is what is happening today. Guaranty agencies provide a wide range of college access services to low- and middle-income families, besides helping millions of students avoid default. Finally, who needs think tanks supported by tax-deductible donations? We already have the Congressional Research Service, state universities, members of Congress who are really smart and the Military television channel.