Senator Conrad Trying To Exempt Bank Of North Dakota From Obama’s Student Loan Nationalization

Obama’s has been talking about effectively nationalizing student loans in America for some time now. Or, more accurately, to finish the job in nationalizing since most student loans are backed by the federal government already (think: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac except a different sort of loan). In North Dakota, that’s caused some concern because student loans in this state are already basically run by the government in the form of the Bank of North Dakota.
Now, nationalizing student loans is a really, really bad idea for a lot of good reasons among them the fact that our federal government is bankrupt and can’t afford it. And the fact that when we make higher education an entitlement, which Obama would be doing devalue college education.
But apparently Senator Kent Conrad is willing to go along with this bad idea…as long as North Dakota is exempted from the law. As the Washington Times put it, first we had the Cornhusker Kickback. Then the Louisiana Purchase. Now the “Bismarck Earmark.”

Sen. Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, seems to be demanding a sop for the Bank of North Dakota to guarantee his support for President Obama’s proposed federal takeover of the entire student-loan industry, known as the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The senator is willing to impose this awful idea on the rest of the country so long as North Dakota’s own program is spared. …
These special favors are galling because they’re being granted as the Obama administration pursues a scorched-earth campaign against most of the private lenders that have provided the bulk of college student loans for many years.
Traditionally, about 75 percent of colleges have administered most of their student loans through private companies, backed by federal guarantees in the Federal Family Education Loan Program. The other 25 percent of loans come through the Department of Education’s Direct Loan Program, created 16 years ago, which is the education version of health care’s “public option.”

Setting aside the debate over whether or not the federal government should be running student loans (they shouldn’t) or even subsidizing/securing them (they shouldn’t), if Conrad thinks this bill is good enough for the rest of the country then it should be good enough for North Dakota. If it’s bad for North Dakota, then the rest of the country shouldn’t get stuck with it either.