lowquality.net

I think more people should know about this. Please distribute.

In 1997, under intense lobbying from student loan companies, The Higher Education Act (HEA) was amended, and defaulted student loans became among the most lucrative, and easiest to collect type of debt. These amendments allow for huge penalties and fees to be attached to defaulted student loan debt, take away bankruptcy protection for student borrowers, dissallow refinancing of the debt, and also provide for draconian collection and punitive measures to be taken against student borrowers, including wage garnishment, tax garnishment, withholding of professional certifications, termination from employment , social security garnishment, and others. According to Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren in a Wall Street Journal piece by John Hechinger , “Student-loan debt collectors have power that would make a mobster envious.”

This legislation has reaped massive fortunes for well connected executives in the private sector. This is particularly true for the Sallie Mae Corporation, whose executive officers invested personal fortunes in lobbying activities in support of the legislation. According to opening comments made in their 2003 Annual report, Former CEO (Now Chairman) Albert Lord (who with his wife personally contributed over $250,000 to senators and Congressmen in support of education legislation in just the last election cycle) boasts that the company’s 29% core cash earnings-per-share growth could be attributed largely to fees collected from defaulted loans, as well as loan origination growth.

from www.studentloanjustice.org