more than ever to complete their degrees.

On July 1, 2012, the interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans are slated to double from 3.4% to 6.8%. To out-educate our global competitors and make college more affordable, Congress needs to stop the interest rate on these student loans from doubling.

If Congress doesn’t act before July 1, 2012, interest rates on loans for over 7.4 million students, including 986,494 Hispanic students, will double. And for each year that Congress doesn’t act, students rack up an additional $1,000 in debt over the life of their loans.

As he did in his State of the Union address, President Obama is calling on Congress to put forward legislation to stop interest rates from doubling. The President is calling on Congress to reward hard work and responsibility by keeping interest rates on student loans low so more Americans get a fair shot at an affordable college education, the skills they need to find a good job, and a clear path to the middle class.


Ensuring American Students have a Fair Shot at an Affordable Higher Education

Higher education is not a luxury: it is an economic imperative that every hard working and responsible student should be able to afford. President Obama has emphasized that the federal government, states, colleges, and universities all have a role to play in making in making higher education more affordable, by reining in college costs, providing value for American families, and preparing students with a solid education to succeed in their careers. The President is calling on Congress to advance new reforms to give more hard working students a fair shot at pursuing higher education:

• Reforming student aid to promote affordability and value: To keep tuition from spiraling too high and drive greater value, the President has proposed reforms to federal campus-based aid programs to shift aid away from colleges that fail to keep net tuition down, and toward those colleges and universities that do their fair share to keep tuition affordable, provide good value, and serve needy students well. These changes in federal aid to campuses will leverage $10 billion annually to help keep tuition down.

• Creating a Race to the Top for college affordability and completion: The President has proposed incentives for states to maintain their commitments to higher education through a ...