The Obama Administration released its plan for the future of No Child Left Behind. In the absence of new legislation to fix the the original bill’s demands, the Department of Education will issue waivers to public schools that meet a particular set of guidelines.

There is a particularly egregious sheen to the shilling of education that the for-profit institutions exercise.  When it cheats the educational system out of badly-needed funding while taking advantage of potential workers, it is a crime.

Nelnet improperly exploits a loophole in the student lending regulations for years, and then last Friday afternoon settled a $1+ billion student loan fraud case for $55 million, just as college students head back to campus. Lovely.

But I’m sure that nothing like this could happen with insurance companies and the Health Insurance reform regulations, or the Wall Street firms and the FinReg rules . . .

Welcome back to campus, everyone.

Why should the government support the failed business model of Sallie Mae and other student loan finance companies like Citi and JPMorgan Chase? Why isn’t that money going to help students pay for their education?

Sallie Mae gets cheap money to make guaranteed student loans, and there is a buyer who will pay face value. Surprise: it’s your government. It’s up to Congress to stop this practice and quit acting like saps.