When Is Financial Aid Not Financial Aid?

Ronald Reagan did us a great disservice, round about 1984, by shrinking the amount of true financial aid and funneling needy students into the wild and woolly world of the loan industry. Sure, student loans tend to be at lower rates and are backed by the government, but it's not really financial aid.

When you suggest that student loans are financial aid, you are really tricking the students to feed the loan servicing industry. As students make decisions about how they pay for college, when they decide to accept a loan they are betting on themselves (usually a safe bet).

But, in doing so amplifying the cost of their education dramatically; not unlike how the W, Rove and Co is paying for their much loved war in Iraq. Sooner or later, the pay back bites back.

As government aid has declined, loans from banks and other private lenders have soared, climbing to 20 percent of all education borrowing last year, up from 12 percent five years earlier.

The result is towering debt. The same bachelor’s degree will cost a student borrower far more than a student who can afford to pay. That’s not a path to greater equality.