Dear Incoming Members of the House and Senate Education Committees,
The people I work with- former students who's lives have been shattered by their student loans, would like to respectfully - but urgently - request that you decline campaign and PAC contributions from Student Loan interests during your term on the Education Committee.
Since 1994, members of both House and Senate Education Committees have accepted millions of dollars in campaign and PAC contributions from Sallie Mae, the Consumer Banker's Association, Citibank, Nelnet, and other Student Loan interests.
The result is that we now have the most predatory student loan system in the nation that is the most absent of basic consumer protections, and millions of citizen's lives are being ruined for the purpose of record breaking profits for Sallie Mae and others.
Decent citizens are living "off the grid", fleeing the country, even taking their own lives as the direct result of what you have let the student loan industry do.
Meanwhile, the cost of college has far outpaced inflation during the same time period.
The voters listed corruption as their most important concern this November. Please heed this call, do the right thing, and right what has been so wrong in the student loan industry for more than a decade.
Go to www.studentloanjustice.org/victims.htm to see for yourself what Congress has done to the people to ensure obscene profits for the student lenders.