HOUSTON -- Who says you’ll never use algebra? Today’s college students might need a math degree just to keep track of their debt.

“I might not be able to finish. If I have $100,000 in debt, I’m not going to continue my education,” HCC student Nathalie Katonzi said.

At HCC, 11 News found Danielle Pittsenbarger in line for financial aid, hoping to get a grant she won’t have to pay back

She already owes about $8,000 in student loans.

“That’s paid all my schooling. If I didn’t get that, I didn’t go to school,” she said.

The fact is, the cost of college is soaring, and that’s making loans more critical than ever for many students.

“It’s very important,” UH Downtown student Dominic Biagas said.

Important, sure, but the number of lenders is dropping.

Blame it on the credit crunch and on new rules imposed by Congress that cut the fees lenders can charge students.

The result: Dozens of big banks and little lenders are getting out of the student loan business.

“It doesn’t mean the amount of money is drying up, by any means. It just means the availability of which lender the student can go to is going to be far less,” Paul Withey of the Texas Bay Area Credit Union said.

In Pasadena, the Texas Bay Area Credit Union has stopped offering government-backed student loans.

And who does that affect?

“Our client base is really here at the local community college,” Withey said.

Community colleges may offer some of the lowest tuitions around, but a third of the students at HCC still rely on loans.

Now, as the students head to campus for the fall semester, some could find the loans they thought they had are gone.

They’ll have to find a new lender.

“There are other banks that are still giving loans. Everybody didn’t pull out,” Dr. Cheryl Sterling of HCC said.

At the University of St. Thomas, two of the 13 lenders the school uses have pulled out.

But as a private school, St. Thomas can dig into its own savings. The administration has set up an emergency fund of $400,000 to make up for any shortfalls.

“We currently have not had to use that, because we have not had any students who’ve not been able to find a lender,” Scott Moore of the University of St. Thomas said.

Lenders like the Texas Bay Area Credit Union say in their case, it has nothing to do with the credit crunch. In fact, they say their home and car loan business is actually setting records.

Instead, they blame Congress for making the government-backed college loans so cut-rate for students that the lenders lose money on them.

“And so we decided to pull back out of it until we get the law changed,” Withey said.

For students, that means one more equation to solve: Getting the money they need for a college education.