Jason Delisle vs. Sallie Mae on PBS NewsHour

On Friday, Jason Delisle, director of New America’s Federal Education Budget Project, went head to head with Renee Mang, a senior vice president at Sallie Mae, on PBS NewsHour over the student loan reform legislation that is currently being considered by the Senate. The discussion focused on the benefits of the bill, as well as the impact the measure would have on loan industry jobs and whether the legislation represented “a government takeover” of the federal student loan program. The most bizarre moment in the segment came when Mang complained that there are “thousands of students who have applied for loans at Sallie Mae that are being denied the right today to take those loans because the schools are being forced to go to the direct lending program.” Perhaps we missed something, but we haven’t heard any reports of students taking to the streets over being denied the “right” to borrow from Sallie Mae….

To view this video, click play. If you’d like a transcript of the interview, click here.