Harry Painter, in today’s Pope Center feature, explains how the Lumina Foundation, a $1.3 billion nonprofit aimed at sending more students to college, strayed from its libertarian roots and became a cheerleader for destructive financial aid programs that send students to college without regard to their academic ability or ability to repay loans. Painter, who calls Lumina a “creature of the federal government,” (in 2000 it received more than $700M from Sallie Mae) says that the foundation now “promotes college access for its own sake and supports the growing role of the federal government in providing [college access].”