“Since I arrived in Washington, I’ve been looking at every line item in the budget of the U.S. Department of Education with two questions in mind: Is this program helping students learn? And is it a good use of taxpayer money? In the case of the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program, the answer to both questions is no,” writes Education Secretary Arne Duncan in The Wall Street Journal. “Over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the Education Department is slated to subsidize banks to the tune of $87 billion to enable them to make federal student loans. All of this money would be put to better use providing financial aid directly to millions of needy students who want a college education.”