A Call to Arms?

Early in his presidential campaign, Barack Obama called for eliminating the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and providing government-backed student loans entirely through Direct Lending. Obama’s leading rivals made similar pledges during the primary campaign.

But ever since Obama locked up his party’s nomination in June, we’ve heard little about this issue. In fact, the proposal was not included in the Democratic National Platform. And it did not receive any mention in press releases that the president-elect’s transition team put out on his education agenda late last year.

At Higher Ed Watch, we assumed that, in the wake of the credit crunch, Obama’s campaign staff had decided to put the proposal on the back burner. After all, colleges have been flooding into the Direct Loan program on their own. And with so many other daunting challenges facing Obama, we wondered whether this was a fight he would want to pick early in his presidency.

So imagine our surprise this week when we discovered — after being tipped off by a loyal reader — that the new administration has broken its silence.

Slap-dab on the White House website, under a section outlining Obama’s fiscal policy, is the following statement:

End Wasteful Government Spending: Obama and Biden will stop funding wasteful, obsolete federal government programs that make no financial sense. Obama and Biden have called for an end to subsidies for oil and gas companies that are enjoying record profits, as well as the elimination of subsidies to the private student loan industry which has repeatedly used unethical business practices. Obama and Biden will also tackle wasteful spending in the Medicare program. [Emphasis added]

That’s a pretty strong statement. Of course, we don’t know whether it’s a full-fledged battle cry or simply rhetoric. But the fact that the new administration has broken its silence seems newsworthy in and of itself.

Let us know what you think. Inquiring minds want to know.