Society relies on our colleges to solve our social problems,
graduating skilled people to become teachers, social workers, doctors,
entrepreneurs and innovators who can improve our collective quality of
life. We also rely on college to offer opportunities to students from
all socioeconomic backgrounds, acting as a force of fairness and
equality.
To maintain this role, our Higher Education Project seeks to make student loan programs more affordable and efficient.
These
days, college is practically a necessity. But as states cut budgets,
and grant aid has diminished, students are relying on loans to pay for
college. Today, the average student borrows almost $20,000 in student
loans to pay for college. In addition, nearly one-third of all
students work more than 35 hours a week to pay for college, hindering
their academic progress.
To lower student debt, Congress passed a landmark piece of legislation in October 2007
that decreases student loan interest rates and creates new loan
repayment programs designed to ease the repayment burden after
graduation.
But more and more students are moving beyond financial aid to
finance their degrees with private student loans. Private loans are
much riskier, bringing applicants in with low advertised interest rates
but spitting them out with higher interest rates and record debt levels.
Worse, loan pricing targets lower income students with higher
interest rates and penalty fees. As a result, students with need based
grants are graduating with the most debt, and debt with higher
interest.
Our project is working to protect students as consumers against the
banks, make federal loans for parents more competitive toward private
student loans, and give students more flexibility within the federal
loan programs when their circumstances change, so they don’t need to
turn toward banks for college financing.
