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May 3, 2008

Forum participants resolve to find student loan crunch solution

By Bill O'Boyle boboyle@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – Stephen Kopko told it like it is: Without his student loans, he wouldn’t be able to continue his education and become a lawyer.

U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, said Kopko’s plight struck a chord, reminding him of his first employer, Walter Osko, who abandoned his dream to become a lawyer when he left school to support his family.

“We can’t let that happen to students like Stephen Kopko,” Kanjorski said Friday at a forum called to address growing concerns in the student-loan industry. “We have to find a solution to this problem so that students have the money to pay for their college educations without interruption.”

Though there are no reports of people unable to obtain loans for college, financial-aid experts are concerned the shaky financial markets will make it more difficult for college students who do not have enough money to pay for tuition.

Financial-aid experts joined Kanjorski, chairman of the House Financial Services, Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee, in the forum discussion on the credit crunch and its effects on the student loan market.

The discussion was held a day after Congress passed legislation designed to ensure that turmoil in the credit markets doesn’t cause a shortage in student loans. President George W. Bush plans to sign it into law.

The measure – House Resolution 5715 - would allow the U.S. Department of Education to buy federally guaranteed student loans that lenders haven’t been able to sell to investors.

“We will fight this until the bitter end,” said C.E. Andrews, president of Sallie Mae, which employs nearly 800 at its Hanover Township site. He said he is optimistic the problem will soon be resolved.

Kanjorski said he hopes to see a resolution within three weeks.

Jim Preston, president and chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, said Congress needs to do more to “save America’s guaranteed student loan program for the benefit of millions of students and thousands of schools, ensuring continued choice among federal loan programs for years to come.”

Kanjorski believes the new legislation will help fix many of the problems with funding student loans. He said it will help to ensure that students and their families have access to the loans they need to achieve their higher education dreams. He talked about Osko, who owned and operated Burke’s Barbecue at Harveys Lake. Osko, he said, dreamed of being a lawyer but had to leave school during the Great Depression to help support his family. He ended up working in the family business his entire life.

Experts anticipate that nearly 7 million borrowers will seek student loans in the coming school year, according to Kanjorski. In Pennsylvania, about 600,000 students attend post-secondary schools with the assistance of low-cost federal loans. Nationwide, 80 percent of students who need financial aid get federally guaranteed student loans.

The Rev. Thomas O’Hara, president of King’s College, welcomed the panel and offered some poignant words to start the discussion.

“Access to loans and grants is absolutely essential so that students’ education can continue,” O’Hara said. “Failure on our part to educate bright people will mean failure for our country in the international marketplace in the crucial years to come.”

Other roundtable participants included Luzerne County Community College student Caitlin Rowe; King’s College students Lauren Piccolo and Kopko; Mary Kosin, immediate past president of the Pennsylvania Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the current director of financial aid at LCCC, and Ellen McGuire, director of financial aid at King’s College.

“Failure on our part to educate bright people will mean failure for our country in the international marketplace in the crucial years to come.”

The Rev. Thomas O’Hara

President of King’s College

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