Although the Great Recession officially ended in 2009, the legacy it left behind continues to pose problems for many Americans, students being first among them. A shrinking job market has resulted in fierce competition for every position, and our college diplomas, once prized so highly, have become little more than scraps of paper in the wind.
College is an investment of much more than time; the price for a degree often saddles students with a mountain of debt that takes years to overcome. Recognizing this, the federal government dropped the interest rates of subsidized loans at the beginning of the Great Recession, seemingly in an attempt to keep education affordable for students. Those good times are apparently coming to a close, as the law authorizing those rate cuts will expire in July. The rates will return to their 2007 levels — a jump from 3.4 to 6.8 percent — if Congress does not act.
Now is not the time for such a large increase. Students are no more prepared now to pay these interest rates after graduating than they were five years ago. Furthermore, following Rep. Trey Gowdy’s comments supporting the increase, the argument that more needs to be done “from a tuition standpoint” appears to be a political cop-out. It is incredibly convenient for Gowdy that tuition rates are not something federal or state governments can usually legislate with anything resembling fairness — as our own state proves.
If Congress refuses to extend this drop in interest rates, or at least agree to a gradual increase, then USC will see a student body forced to accept the growing costs of an education that originally promised to improve life, rather than cripple it with debt.
More Like This
In-Brief: 2/3/2016
By Mary Ramsey | Feb. 2, 2016