If cost were not an obstacle to college, imagine the talent pool this nation might cultivate.

Engineers, teachers, medical professionals all are needed if the United States is to maintain its economic and social position in the world.

Yet, while millions of American students can afford to attend college, rising tuition costs have left a large number of qualified students sitting on the sidelines.

According to the Department of Education, more than 400,000 eligible high school graduates each year delay or forgo enrolling in college due to financial barriers. Students who work while going to school often fail to complete their degrees because of financial constraints.

And those who do graduate often are faced with heavy student-loan burdens and few job offers. More than 71 percent of Pennsylvania college graduates have loans to repay. The average amount of debt for those students is $25,219 and climbing. The number of college graduates nationwide with at least $40,000 in student loan debt has increased 10-fold in the past decade. More than half of all the counties in the United States and one-third of the counties in Pennsylvania report double-digit student loan delinquency rates.

To address these problems, the Obama administration has pushed for ways to increase aid through grants and low-interest loans and to simplify the process. In September, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act by a vote of 253-171 that would remove banks and private lenders from the equation and allow the federal government to allocate the funds directly to groups like the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency.

Although the federal government currently makes some loans directly available to students, a large number of loans are made by banks and private lenders, which then receive federal subsidies for having made the loans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, eliminating subsidy payments would free up an additional $87 billion over the next decade.

Of that amount, roughly $40 billion would be used to build up the federal government's Pell grants, which are need-based scholarships that do not have to be repaid. Pell grants would be increased to cover a greater portion of college costs. Additional funds would be used to fund Perkins low-interest loans.

And community colleges would get roughly $12 billion over the next 10 years.

If all of this makes sense, then it should come as no surprise that the idea faces opposition. Banks and lenders that profit from the existing student loan system are lobbying against the proposed changes.

One of President Barack Obama's key planks was his vow to improve the college student loan program. The legislation now before the U.S. Senate does that. It puts money in the hands of the students who need it, not inthe hands of the lenders who stand to profit from it.