Letter: Colleges wrong to sell names of their students

Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2002 | 8:26 a.m.

It makes me really mad that schools are selling their students' names to banks. Parents save and borrow for 18 or more years so their children have a chance to go to college and possibly have a better start in life than they had. For what? So a young, struggling student gets bombarded with the promise of instant money at a small interest of 23 percent.

No wonder so many young people are in bankruptcy and have high credit card debt. Credit card companies are giving these high-interest cards to students before they even have jobs. By the time they start working they are already in debt.

It is not fair to do this to our young students. When you are young and have to live on a tight budget to get through school, it is hard to resist the temptation of instant money.

As a parent, I definitely wouldn't expect my daughter's school to sell her out like this. No student should be treated like this by their own school. A college should be a place where a student will learn how to be successful in life. A place of discovery, not a place of Discover Card.

In the future when my daughter and I are looking at colleges, you better bet one of the first questions will be: So do you sell student names to banks?

SHARON WRIGHT