The House has approved dramatic changes to student loan policies and the general political attitude toward college costs. This is brilliant:

The bill is an effort to keep college costs down through greater transparency — and perhaps shaming — without imposing price controls.

Recently, my alma mater Beloit College sent me a piece of propaganda celebrating the recently departed college president and highlighting Beloit achievements in the last eight years. I scoffed at a chart bragging about Beloit’s low yearly cost* among ACM institutions at $38,000 and change.

Most students at Beloit receive what’s called the “discounted tuition rate,” meaning a relatively small portion of students actually pay that $38 large. On top of that, the school applies variable scholarships, grants, and loans depending on how badly they want you — a C student may receive a higher proportion of loans, while an A student with a list of accolades will likely receive more in grants. This is the secret to financial flexibility at a hippie school like Beloit: They take tremendous risks in admitting and pursuing students with spotty academic records, but those students often produce the most dynamic results on campus, both academically and extracurricularly. Of course, this means Beloit also has a relatively high rate of transfer-out and changing majors.

The ironic part is that private schools are largely immune to bureaucratic murmurs about cost, when they’re also the most fiscally bloated and out of control. Squeezing down the cost of state schools is blood from a stone.

(Lest we disregard this 1,100-page legislation as icky abstract financial news, here is the MOST EXCITING PART. The FAFSA, a standby behemoth of financing higher education, will be reduced in volume by 71%: 2 pages instead of 7.)

* tuition, room and board. Does not include books, presumably, which can easily be $1000 more per year, nor spending money, which varies by social life and vices of choice.

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