"Considering the potentially serious problems facing families in obtaining student loans for the fall, the May 5 editorial 'Lending to Students' was not The Post's finest hour," writes America's Student Loan Providers Executive Director Kevin Bruns in The Washington Post. "The editorial not only failed to support efforts by Congress and the Bush administration to avert a crisis but was also written in a time warp: At the time, 66 lenders, not 48, as stated in the editorial, had stopped offering federal student loans (the total is now 75). But the case for a strong private-sector program is as compelling today as it was when President Lyndon Johnson created the program. Consumer choice and lender competition have produced innovation, better service, fewer defaults and lower-cost loans."