Student Loan Bill Savings Would Aid Early Learning

A shake-up of the federal student-loan program would be used to help finance a significant boost to early childhood education programs, under a bill introduced today by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Rep. Miller’s legislation—which is based largely on a proposal put forward by President Barack Obama in his fiscal year 2010 budget request—would scrap the Federal Family Education Loan Program, in which the government subsidizes private lenders to make federal loans. ( “President’s Education Aims Aired,” Feb. 28, 2008.)

Instead, starting in July of next year, all loans would originate with the direct-lending program, in which students borrow right...