Over the past 10 years, Sallie Mae has spent more than $25 million lobbying to deregulate the student lending industry, essentially working against the best interests of countless student borrowers and the US taxpayers.
Much of Sallie Mae’s lobbying effort has urged draconian legislation, such as the removal of bankruptcy protections for private student loans. In a leaked memo, Sallie Mae officials list preserving the inability of borrowers to discharge student loans in bankruptcy as their second most important goal. Why would this be so important? With bankruptcy protection removed, coupled with Sallie Mae owning their own collection companies, the company is able to to make far more money once people default.
Currently, students are graduating with an average of $26,000 in student loans, while 1 out of 5 are defaulting on such debts. Sallie Mae, on the other hand, has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in profit off the backs of these students and also received billions in bailout money. A process, Andrew Ferguson of the conservative Weekly Standard, refers to as “a classic case of crony capitalism or (if you prefer) corporate socialism.”
Fed up with companies like Sallie Mae fleecing the taxpayers? Then take action with StudentDebtCrisis.org. We just launched a brand new petition: Lawmakers: STOP Accepting Campaign Cash from Sallie Mae. Within just 24 hours, over 25,000 people rallied to sign and the number of signatures continues to rise by the hour – will you be a part of history?
