POLICIES CREATE NEED FOR PRIVATE LOANS

USA TODAY's article on the traps of private college loans was
important and timely. But it glossed over specific Republican policies
that have created a perfect storm of financial constraints that
threatens the already beleaguered access of low-income students to
higher education ("Private student loans pose greater risk," Cover
story, Money, Oct. 25).

The article mentioned the drop in Pell Grant funding. These grants
have been underfunded for years, but the situation has been made worse
by Congress cutting $12.7 billion last year in federal student
financial aid to help pay for the Iraq war and for over $100 billion a
year in top-bracket tax cuts. It mentioned the bankruptcy laws, but
not how they were lobbied through by immensely profitable credit card
companies that will gleefully offer a credit card to your dog, cat or
12-year-old, and that donated massively to Republican coffers to
ensure that if individuals went bankrupt they'd be indebted to them
for life.

The third aspect is the ban on federal financial aid to students with
drug convictions. It has no impact on affluent partiers -- such as the
president when he was "young and reckless" -- but more than 200,000
students have lost their assistance since it went into effect.

Put the most recent changes together and the land of opportunity
threatens to become dangerously less so for anyone but the already
privileged.

Paul Loeb

Seattle