Congress needs real solution to ease student debt burden

on April 27, 2012 at 6:06 AM
us-capitol.JPGThe Star-Ledger editorial board says Congress needs to find a real solution to tackle the high cost of college.

At first glance, it appeared to be a rare moment of bipartisan action: Congressional Democrats and Republicans say they want to ease the debt burden on students planning to take out college loans this year by freezing interest rates on newly issued, federally backed loans for undergraduates. Without the freeze, rates would double on July 1.

The only problem: how to pay for it. Holding the line on Stafford loan interest rates will cost $6 billion. And here’s where the “bipartisanship” evaporates like so many tequila shots at a frat party. Both parties embedded a nasty little poison pill in their proposals, a payment plan sure to make the opposition recoil in horror and reject the bill out of hand.

Democrats proposed raising taxes on small businesses. The Senate will attempt to vote on it after next week’s recess, but a filibuster by Republicans is likely. President Obama has made a big show of holding campus rallies this week, using the issue to light a fire under the youth vote that was so excited about his candidacy four years ago.

Republicans came up with their own plan to freeze the rate, but they’ll pay for it by diverting money from Obama’s health care plan “slush fund.” That’s how House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) characterized a $17 billion account for prevention and public health programs. House Republicans were scheduled to vote on their plan today.

Both bills aim at nothing so much as making the other guy look like a lout for leaving students in the lurch. These petty theatrics ensure nothing but continued paralysis.


Lost in the sideshow are prospective college students who, if taking out a loan after July 1, can look forward to another $1,000 out-of-pocket cost each year after they graduate if Congress doesn’t act.

What difference does college make? Plenty. Over the past 30 years, the gap between earnings of college graduates and high school graduates has tripled. Planning for the future means staying in school now. Students and society will reap the rewards down the road. But not if students abandon their dreams because they are too costly.

And all because our political leaders would rather poke a stick in each other’s eye than work together on a genuine solution.

Related: Opinion: Debt from student loans is crippling a generation