Sallie Breaks Up With ALEC

Good news! Sallie Mae has withdrawn from the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC. The nation’s largest student lender this week became the 50^th corporation to drop ALEC, distancing itself from the secretive, corporate-backed lobby group.

Common Cause is part of a broad coalition of groups that helped put together a student rally in front of Sallie Mae’s shareholder meeting in Delaware last May and turned out almost 3,000 protestors at ALEC’s 40^th anniversary conference in Chicago last month. Our activism, including a “whistleblower” complaint to the Internal Revenue Service challenging ALEC’s claim that it’s a charity and does not engage in lobbying, has been a major factor in decisions by companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, General Motors, and Bank of America, to cut ties with the group.

Sallie Mae seems to have gotten the message, opting to cut ties with ALEC. Now the lender needs to take the next logical step and stop lobbying in statehouses and Congress on behalf of the predatory and unfair lending practices that have made it one of the world’s most profitable financial services firms — at student expense.