Student loans: Here's the solution

I just received the following from Progressives United...

If you have to take out some normal debt -- say a home loan or a credit card -- our government assures protection to make sure you don't end up owing your whole life to a predatory lender.

But, like so many Americans, if you took out a student loan to finance your education, you may be missing basic consumer protections that come with other types of debt.

That's because the private student loan industry lobbied Congress for a huge loophole in 2005, and President George W. Bush carried it the rest of the way.

As a result, private educational lenders got government-guaranteed profits -- while students working for their education got the shaft.

Take action today. Join our friends at CREDO and sign the petition telling your member of Congress to support the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act today.

Here's the shocking truth: Americans hold more debt from student loans than from credit cards.

New generations of students striving to keep up in our increasingly competitive economy are forced to take out these loans, even though they're devoid of protections afforded to holders of other kinds of debt. While corporate loan companies charge monstrously high and variable interest rates, hapless graduates are left to guarantee the lenders' profits regardless of the harm to their own lives.

The private student loan industry has been allowed to play by a different set of rules than other lenders, and it's fundamentally unfair.

But pressure is building behind a bill from Rep. Steve Cohen (TN) and Rep. Danny Davis (IL) that would curb these predatory loan practices: the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act. We can change the game this time around if we stay organized and pass this crucial legislation. The first step is getting our members of Congress on board.

Sign CREDO's petition to your representative today. Tell your member of Congress to support the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act.

The private loan industry used expensive lobbyists to get to this point, so we can be sure they'll take the same approach to try to buy their way out of this new challenge. We can stop them.

In case you missed it, here's the link.