The Stafford Student Loan rate will double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent without Congressional action. Vermont Student Assistance CorporationPresident and CEO Don Vickers explains that about four years ago Congress passed a bill to lower the rate on student loans over those four years.
Vickers says VSAC’s mission is to assure that Vermonters have the resources for education and training beyond high school, and increasing the Stafford loan rates would be an impediment to post-secondary education.
Vermont Congressman Peter Welch is supporting the Student Loan Affordability Act, introduced by Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed and Connecticut Congressman Joe Courtney, which would freeze the Stafford loan rate at 3.4 percent. But Welch says Republicans are blocking action.
The New York Public Interest Research Group is planning a statewide “Student Loan Deflate My Rate Day” on Thursday to call New York’s Congressional representatives about the interest rates. Project Coordinator Kevin Stump notes that New York students are the most debt laden.
According to the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation the federal government made 39 billion dollars profit from education loans last year.
