With six days left before Congress makes a decision on the doubling of student loan interest rates, President Barack Obama and college students around the country continue to push for congressional action to stop the increase.
According to Obama, a cut in federal Stafford loan interest rates that Congress passed in 2007 is scheduled to expire July 1. If Congress does not pass the Stop the Rate Hike Act of 2012, which maintains the current 3.4 percent interest rate, by the end of the month, rates will double to 6.8 percent for the more than 7 million students with Stafford loans.
In April, Congress came to a gridlock between two different bills that would generate the $6 billion in subsidies needed to maintain the reduced interest rates — Democrats favored a bill that would generate money from cutting subsidies for oil companies, while Republicans favored a bill that would generate money from repealing a program from the country’s new health care plan.
Obama has been visiting college campuses to call on students to email, call and tweet lawmakers into action. He started a #DontDoubleMyRate Twitter campaign, through which people have been mobilizing to tell Congress to keep student interest rates reduced.
Earlier this month while visiting University of Nevada, Obama told students low student loan interest rates should be Congress’s priority in maintaining affordable higher education.
“The number one thing Congress should do for you … is to stop interest rates on student loans from doubling at the end of the month,” Obama said in his speech. “The clock is running out. You know, in today’s economy, higher education can’t be a luxury. It’s an economic necessity. Everybody should be able to afford it.”
UC spokesperson Dianne Klein said in an email that the university is also doing its part to keep the interest rates low.
According to Klein, more than 76,300 UC undergraduates received subsidized Stafford loans in 2010-11, and if the bill is passed, these estimated student borrowers could save approximately $1,000.
Klein said UC President Mark Yudof has written letters regarding the bill to Obama, Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. and all 55 members of the California congressional delegation.
“It is critically important that the federal government work together to keep borrowing costs low for students and their families,” Yudof said in the letter to Feinstein. “I urge you to take action to ensure that the interest rate on subsidized Stafford student loans does not double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent on July 1, 2012.”
Derek Zhou, president of Berkeley College Republicans, said the organization supports the bipartisan effort to extend current loan interest rates and gave his perspective as a UC Berkeley student.
“On behalf of myself, I think spending in education is certainly a good thing — the question is whether the money is always used effectively,” Zhou said.
Campus CALPIRG Treasurer Spencer Pritchard said the organization has been advocating for continued low interest rates as well.
Pritchard said the organization held a campus event on Valentine’s Day asking Congress members not to break its heart by doubling student loan interest rates. Since then the organization has sent out hundreds of student petitions and been to press conferences with Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland and Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to put pressure on Congress.
“Personally, I have these loans, and (the increase) will make it harder for me to pay off my loans,” Pritchard said. “It could affect my debt and make it harder for me to start other things in the future like buy a house … I think all students understand that you don’t want to be in a bind.”
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Here’s a link to an interesting perspective: Using taxpayer money to subsidize low interest rates might actually reduce pressure on colleges to cut costs. Students are harmed more by higher tuition increases than student loan interest rates.
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/06/25/how-cheap-federal-loans-may-harm-students
Cal kiddies in worthless majors take note
Mini Me Lib Reich gives advice
Former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Berkeley Professor and Obama supporter has an unsettling message for 2012 college graduates: “You’re screwed.”
The blistering verdict came as part Mr. Reich’s Sunday column addressed to “Members of the Class of 2012″ wherein the former Labor secretary decries the current state of jobs and opportunities for recent college graduates entering the Failed Obama economy:
As a former secretary of labor and current professor, I feel I owe it to you to tell you the truth about the pieces of parchment you’re picking up today.
You’re screwed.
First, you’re going to have a hell of a hard time finding a job in the Obama economy. The job market you’re heading into is still bad. Fewer than half of the graduates from last year’s class have as yet found full-time jobs. Most are still looking.
That’s been the pattern over the last three graduating classes ever since Obama was elected: It’s been taking graduates more than a year to land the first job. And those who still haven’t found a job will be competing with you, making your job search even harder.
Contrast this with the Bush class of 2008, whose members were lucky enough to get out of here and into the job market before the Great Recession really hit. Almost three-quarters of them found jobs within the year.
Last year’s young college graduates lucky enough to land jobs had an average hourly wage of only $16.81, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute. That’s about $35,000 a year – lower than the yearly earnings of young college graduates in 2007, before the Recession. The typical wage of young college graduates dropped 4.6 percent between 2007 and 2011, adjusted for inflation.
Yup, even hard core LibTard Reich calls out Obama as a failure. If you want to get a good job you must oust Obama and his economic illiterate Lib cabal in Washington.
“You are screwed.” I received my undergrad degree in 1980. I was screwed when I entered the job market as a data entry clerk. I received my graduate degree in 2005. I was screwed when no jobs were available for over a year.
I’m pretty sure I know who/what screws me and Obama is not on the list but I’m beginning to think blathering name tosses are on my list. Just staying….
Typo – tossers not tosses
Degrees in what?
["You are screwed." I received my undergrad degree in 1980. I was
screwed when I entered the job market as a data entry clerk. I received
my graduate degree in 2005. I was screwed when no jobs were available
for over a year.]
So you waited 25 years to get a graduate degree? With the exceptions of JDs and MBAs, most advanced degrees in a given profession don’t really pay off after a given time, as you should have gained the necessary experience while working in your career field. Maybe you’re trying to tell us that your chosen fields of study aren’t in particular demand in the marketplace?
Anyone who’s old enough to remember Gerald Ford’s WIN (Whip Inflation Now) debacle will see what’s coming here…