The gall of big Wall Street banks is truly amazing. They tanked our nation’s economy while giving their executives massive bonuses. And now, the banking lobby is fighting to hold on to $94 billion in federal subsidies for giving bank loans to college students.

President Barack Obama’s budget plan proposes to end this subsidy to the banks and instead offer loans directly to students from the government. These “direct student loans” would mean lower costs for students AND for taxpayers. Given that the average Massachusetts student finishes college with $21,090 in debt, this reform is sorely needed.

MASSPIRG is coordinating calls Thursday to our Congressional representatives, asking them to stand up to the bankers and private student loan industry, and invest in students, not banks, by passing the President’s budget plan.

In 2007, MASSPIRG helped pass the College Cost Reduction and Access Act in Congress. The bill helped lessen the burden of student debt by including an additional $2 billion in funding for the Pell Grant program, establishing an income-based loan repayment program, and cutting the interest rate on subsidized Stafford loans.

MASSPIRG is a statewide, student-run and student-funded non-profit public interest advocacy organization that works on making higher education affordable, stopping global warming and alleviating hunger and homelessness. We are able to do all this work because, since 1972, students here at Amherst College have voted to have a MASSPIRG chapter, and fund it through an $9 per student, per semester, refundable fee. By pooling our money with students all across the state, we can hire advocates, researchers, and organizers to work with us, and help us make an impact on these issues locally, statewide and nationally.

—Michelle Huynh ’11