“It’s not just a Wall Street problem,” MSU law professor Elliot Spoon said. “There’s too much political rhetoric from all sides and not enough approaching this in a way that, we have a problem and we have to solve it.”

Spoon, who is an expert in federal housing legislation, said until action is taken, markets will continue to tumble and students will feel the effects as they try to finance their educations and find jobs.

Val Meyers, an MSU associate director of financial aid, said the failure of the bailout plan could make it difficult for students to get loans from private lenders that have stopped loaning money.

University loans come from the U.S. Department of Treasury. Those who receive loans through the university are safe for now, but the future is uncertain, she said.

“If things get a lot worse, student aid won’t be the only thing we have to worry about,” she said. “We’re all just watching and waiting to see what’s going to happen.”

Journalism senior Lori Dey witnessed the effects of the student loan crisis when a good friend was unable to get enough money to finance an MSU education.

“Her parents aren’t there to help her, so she’s doing loans,” Dey said. “She ended up having to leave MSU because she couldn’t get the loans she needed, so now she’s at (Lansing Community College).”

Students who don’t rely on loans also could face challenges if the market slump affects their parents’ financial status, MSU economics professor Charles Ballard said.

“If you’ve got any investments, you took a huge hit,” he said.

“A lot of students are dependent upon their parents for paying for all or part of their tuition, and if the parents’ financial situation deteriorates, that’s a problem for the student.”

Spoon said if a solution isn’t found soon, small businesses will have difficulty getting loans and, consequently, might have to downsize their workforce. This, he said, would make things difficult for new graduates beginning their careers and students looking for summer jobs.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, was among the more than two-thirds of House Republicans who voted against the bailout. Rogers issued a statement Monday arguing that the bill is a blank check to Wall Street that taxpayers should not have to write.

“This bill would only take more Michigan tax dollars and Michigan families will see nothing for it,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Southfield, who supported the bailout, expressed disappointment in its failure.

“Unless we deal with the financial troubles that Wall Street and other financial institutions have helped to create, we will all be hurt … including the millions of Americans struggling to keep a roof over their head, families who need to borrow money to send a child to college and businesses like the auto industry which depend on the availability of affordable loans,” he said.

Sylvia Warner, press secretary for Rogers, said legislators might rework the bill and vote on it later this week.

Ballard said he expects lawmakers to approve the bailout in the second round of voting.

The bottom line, he said, is that although a $700 billion taxpayer bill to Wall Street might not be easy to swallow, the consequences of a continuing market meltdown are worse.

“If some idiot throws away a cigarette and starts a forest fire, nobody’s happy that there’s a forest fire, but that doesn’t mean we don’t put it out,” he said.