Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

President Bush showed good sense on Wednesday when he signed legislation to ensure an uninterrupted flow of federal student loans during the credit crunch. Now comes the test of leadership.

The new law will help lenders who have found themselves unable to raise money for new loans on acceptable terms — if at all. The difficulty has nothing to do with the quality of the loans. The government guarantees all federal student loans against default and guarantees lenders an interest rate set in law. But as capital has become costly and scarce, student lending has become less profitable, leading several dozen lenders to stop lending.