SCOTT SIMON, host: The latest twist in the growing student loan scandal, the U.S. Department of Education has put a senior official on paid leave for owning stock in a student loan company he was responsible for overseeing. Financial aid directors of three major universities are facing similar allegations.

NPR's Libby Lewis reports on how the student loan program has changed and grown since it was started 40 years ago.

LIBBY LEWIS: The vision was this. Poor students would get government grants. Middle-income students would get loans. But vision hit reality pretty quickly.

Mr. STEPHEN BURD (Senior Research Fellow, New America Foundation): The problem that the government had was that many banks didn't want to get into the loan program because students were not credit worthy.

LEWIS: Stephen Burd is with the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.

Mr. BURD: And because they didn't have credit, it was a big risk for lenders...

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