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Congress Should Keep Student Loan Rates Steady
By Christina Gutierrez
Dear Editor,
I would like to raise awareness and stress urgency to act in response to a pressing matter that will affect students such as myself across the nation. This pressing matter is the cost of higher education and decreasing road blocks in the path to opportunity for students who should not be punished for having a desire to learn.
If Congress does not act by July 1, interest rates on federal subsidized Stafford loans will double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, and make college even more expensive for more than 7 million students around the country.
This month, I joined hundreds of other students from across the country to meet with the offices of Senator John Cornyn and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison to tell them why it's so important to me, my family, and so many other Americans that they not let the interest rate double.
With competition for jobs at an all time high due to cuts and lay offs from businesses, a college degree is not just important to get an edge in the work force when looking for a job, but becoming vital in the steps to attaining one's dream job. Today in this economy and with so many families already struggling, I'm counting on Congress to do the right thing and not make getting an education even harder.
With tuition rising at a rate of nearly 10 percent a year, college students simply cannot afford to have the interest rate on their student loans double when the economy has still not bounced back as expected. Therefore we need the arena we are throwing graduates into to be one where they can get jobs and work towards their payments at a reasonable effort. The time is not yet though. This is why we need Congress to extend this policy and serve the purpose it intended by providing reprieve for those seeking high education during hard economic times.
Congress failing to act would mean that 1 in 3 college students and their families would see the cost of college go up by 20 percent next year- about $1000 of interest for the average loan pulled.
Students and young people around the country have been working hard to raise awareness by organizing rallies, signing petitions, and visiting the offices of their members of Congress because we can't wait any longer. The July 1 deadline is quickly approaching and Congress needs to see that this is an issue their constituents will not allow to go unaddressed and resolved.
Clear upsurges in economic growth can be traced directly from the result of opening doors to more citizens to attend universities and get jobs. For example when women and minorities were welcomed into the work force as well as the GI bill allowing soldiers to pursue education, economic growth was the effect. Today we face a similar chance to ensure that an investment in education is an investment in this country's prosperity.
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