Thom talks to Kyle Olson, Founder and CEO of Education Action Group Foundation, (educationactiongroup.org/) on Student loans & for profit colleges are creating a new generation of indentured servants.

www.facebook.com www.coasttocoastam.com In the first hour, Ian Punnett welcomed the founder of StudentLoanJustice.org, Alan Collinge, who discussed how federal student loans have become predatory, turning a generation into debtor slaves. “It’s a socially horrible epidemic,” he declared, noting that America’s total student loan debt now surpasses the nation’s credit card debt. He explained that student loans are particularly pernicious because they contain no consumer safeguards such as bankruptcy protection, statute of limitations, or the ability to re-finance the debt in an open market. As a result of these factors, Collinge said, when a loan is defaulted, it can double or even triple due to penalties and fees. In looking at the source of the problem, Collinge pointed to student loan advocates and the Department of Education as the key entities that “failed to play their part” in overseeing lending practices. According to him, the DOE has been using a faulty metric to determine the default rate on student loans, thus misleading Congress into increasing the allowable limits on colleges for lending. Additionally, Collinge said, the DOE actually makes “about 22% versus what they pay out” for defaulted student loans. In order to fix the student loan epidemic, Collinge endorsed restoring bankruptcy protections for these loans. Should that happen, he said, “a multitude of problems” will resolve themselves, including an “almost overnight” drop in college tuitions.

By carefully choosing student loans, grants, and scholarships as part of your entire college financial aid package, you can avoid going into heavy college debt. Kimberly Palmer, senior editor for US News, discusses financial aid tips to help in paying for college and minimizing student debt and the differences between private loans and federal college loans. For more college financial aid advice go to www.usnews.com

March 24 (Bloomberg) — Michael Taiano, an analyst with Sandler O’Neill, talks with Bloomberg’s Margaret Brennan about the impact of legislation overhauling student lending on companies like SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae, banks and nonprofit lenders. Under the plan attached to the health-care bill and passed by the House of Representatives, a billion federal program that subsidizes private student loans would end and the loans would be made directly by the government. The House amendments now go to the Senate. (Source: Bloomberg)