Out of America: Going to college? Watch out for Bush's bandits

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A scandal over privatisation of student loans has all the hallmarks of this administration's worst habits
For those of us here with children of 17 or so, it's angst time: where does he or she go to college, and will they get a place?

More than a year before high school graduation, the first scouting visits have started to possible campuses, and the first serious worries surface about the Scholastic Aptitude Test. This is the dreaded SAT, the US equivalent of A-levels, whose points score is the basic determinant of whether you get in.

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What's happened is that the federal government has cut back on its direct student-loan programme, and contracted much of the business to private companies. As might be predicted, these charge slightly more to students - even though the loans are guaranteed by the government - giving the firms, in effect, a licence to print money.

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For students, relief may be at hand. The Democrat-controlled Congress stirred itself last week to invite Mr Cuomo to deliver a blistering testimony on Capitol Hill. Some lenders and colleges have been named and shamed; the worst offenders may face prosecution. And, just maybe, going to college will be a marginally less stressful business.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2494249.ece