Thursday 26 April 2012

Obama Asks That Interest On Student Loans Not Be Increased



newyorker.comObama is talking to students across the nation about interest on student loans; if Congress doesn’t do anything, the rates for Stafford loans will double in July, from 3.4 to 6.8 per cent.

I’m the president of the United States. We only finished paying off our student loans off about eight years ago. That wasn’t that long ago. And that wasn’t easy—especially because when we had Malia and Sasha, we’re supposed to be saving up for their college educations, and we’re still paying off our college educations.

Audio below: Negotiating The College Funding Labyrinth by Claudio Sanchez, NPR



President Obama said that when he and Michelle were first married they paid as much in student loans as for their mortgage. This is American life for more and more people who find it impossible to get a higher education without borrowing a great deal of money. Our culture of indebtedness is not simply a product of people wanting houses they can’t afford, but of students listening when their teachers and people they trust tell them—correctly—that they can’t afford not to go to college. It is almost impossible to simply work one’s way through even a state college without parental money, financial aid, or a loan. Public-university tuitions have more than doubled in the past twenty years, above and beyond the rate of inflation.


No comments:

Post a Comment