The authors of the editorial "Bill will prove beneficial for students" (Jan. 23) clearly haven't read it.

First, this bill does nothing to address skyrocketing tuition. Universities will simply continue to raise their rates, forcing students to borrow more. With the lower interest rates, they will be repaying the same -- if not more -- than they were before. Second, the bill is not designed to cut loan rates to 3.5 percent (the 50 percent cut that the Collegian reported) until 2011. That means only about a third of the current college students will benefit at all.

This is not to say cutting rates is a negative; however, the language of the bill counters any positive action. The "$6 billion investment" is actually not an investment at all, but instead $6 billion worth of student loan subsidies which will be erased to make up for this gap. It follows that $6 billion worth of student loans will not even be issued.

The interest rate then is irrelevant.

The Collegian's Board of Opinion praises this bill as lowering interest rates for everyone and allowing our children to assume less debt when they are financing college. What they fail to mention is that $6 billion that was available to loan out to college students will no longer be available.

Interest rates may drop, but if you can't get a loan to begin with, how concerned will you be with interest?

The issue should be not be loan rates in 2011. The question should be: What is Penn State doing with the $1 billion they take in just in tuition every year and why does that number continue to climb?