Douglas Alexander: “I wish to say a few words--general words--about the student loan program in our country. The Direct Loan program--the…”

“I wish to say a few words--general words--about the student loan program in our country. The Direct Loan program--the program by which the Federal Government itself loans money to college students across our country--began when I was the U.S. Secretary of Education, and the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts was chairman of the Health and Education Committee. We had a Democratic Congress and a Republican President named Bush, although a different Bush. Senator Kennedy will remember the Deputy Secretary was David Kearns, a very distinguished former business leader, head of Xerox. Bill Ford was chairman of the House Education Committee. Chairman Ford very much wanted a so-called Direct Loan Program. He wanted the Government to loan money to students. The law we have today is named after him. He made a great contribution to our Nation's education. I thought about the Direct Loan Program at the time and, generally speaking, I wasn't in favor of it. There were three reasons for my skepticism then. One was that it seemed to me the enormity of the program would mean the Government--our Federal Government--would suddenly find itself being a massive bank.”