LAST WEEK, our fearless president stunned the nation when he offered to take unscripted questions from an audience of college students at Kansas State University in front of CNN cameras. The event proceeded pleasantly until Tiffany Cooper, a sophomore at Kansas State, stepped up to the microphone. She said, "Recently, $12.7 billion was cut from education. I was just wondering, how is that supposed to help our futures?"
Seeming to develop a sudden hearing problem, the president glanced helplessly at his aids while he stalled for time: "Say it again. What was cut? At the federal level?"
It's hard to say whether Bush was feigning idiocy or whether he honestly didn't have a clue. Perhaps he was stalling for time; perhaps the shock of a critical question rendered him temporarily unable to cogitate. But then instinct kicked in, and the president did what he does best: He responded with incoherent talking points.
"Actually, I think what we did was reform the student loan program," he said. "We are not cutting money out of it... It is a form of the program to make sure it functions better."
Had Bush been a newspaper reader, he might have learned that his administration recently pushed a "Deficit Reduction Act" through the Senate that includes a $12.7 billion cut in student loan programs. If the House approves the bill today, the interest rate on Stafford loans will be raised to a fixed 6.8 percent instead of the current variable rate, which is often lower. Since the bill sets interest at a higher rate than lenders are legally allowed to receive for student loans, the difference will be used to pay off the federal deficit.
These changes come at a time when tuition costs are rising rapidly at universities across the country, including our own. Currently, undergraduates at the University borrow $14 million per year, while their parents borrow another $9 million per year.
Director of Financial Services Yvonne Hubbard expressed concern about the increased financial burden that the new rate will place on students. "I don't want interest to be fixed," she said in an interview. "I want it to float so in good times students have an opportunity for a lower rate."
In the past year, the University has taken steps to make it easier for low-income students to come here, including the expansion of the AccessUVA program.The higher interest rate will work against these efforts and make the cost of college even more daunting. Students who must borrow will be forced to either delay their education or to take on massive debt at a young age.
Hubbard said that while no one can argue with the need to pay down the deficit, Congress is "charging the wrong population" for the cost. By passing the burden on to young people, Congress is collecting from those who can least afford the extra debt.
As an alternative source of funding, Congress might consider charging the architects of our adventure in Iraq, or perhaps the private contractors who have been happily collecting at the nation's expense. They might even, God forbid, raise taxes on wealthy Americans who can afford the sacrifice.
Unfortunately, college students have little opportunity for recourse when their leaders have already been purchased by private interests. Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, a key author of the legislation, received almost $250,000 in donations from the college loan industry, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Since college students cannot afford to purchase legislators of our own, we must depend on the compassion of our leaders to represent our interests. In other words, we're screwed.
Yet it was a small victory that a sophomore in Kansas forced Bush to confront the consequences of his leadership on national television. If the Republicans must hurt students to pay for a deficit of their own creation, they should have to admit it, or at least clumsily lie about it.
At the conclusion of his response, the president promised Tiffany Cooper, "I will check when I get back to Washington." He might ask his vice president, who cast the deciding vote on the cuts in the Senate. But the more likely outcome is that it will be some time before another college student is permitted to ask an unscripted question.
Cari Lynn Hennessy's usually column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at chennessy@cavalierdaily.com.
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