It’s from a month ago, but this is an odd editorial from Panama City’s News Herald:
Sallie Mae hardly invokes the image of Jimmy Stewart earnestly trying to secure congressional funding for a national boys’ camp. But you don’t have to look far to put a human face on the legislative stakes. It might be your next-door neighbor.
Lynn Haven is home to a Sallie Mae regional loan servicing center that employs nearly 700. If SAFRA passes, Sallie Mae says it will have to cut about a third of its workforce and re-evaluate its serving center locations. That does not bode well for the Lynn Haven branch — or for Bay County’s economy.
We urge Rep. Allen Boyd and Sens. Bill Nelson and George LeMieux to oppose SAFRA, and not just because of its potentially devastating local impact. Congress must maintain at least a modicum of choice and competition in the student-loan market — or better yet, greatly expand it. SAFRA goes in the opposite, wrong direction.
I know it’s a local paper’s job to editorialize in favor of policies that will benefit its readers, but still…
