WASHINGTON, D.C. (WSAU) — A Wisconsin Congressman things the government should do something about the amount of debt college students are incurring.
Ron Kind, like many Democrats, believes students are leaving college saddled with so much debt that they cannot dig themselves out… even with a good job. “That’s the second highest form of debt that we have as a nation now behind mortgages. It exceeds all credit card debt, and it’s roughly at 1-point-2 trillion. This could be a major time bomb waiting to go off unless Congress can think creatively of how we can alleviate the financial burden and make it a little bit easier, including easier for students to afford the loans that they are taking out.”
Kind says he introduced his College Affordability Plan recently, which would help solve some of those problems. “Some of my proposals are common-sense measures which allow them to consolidate the loans and refinance at a lower level, like homeowners are allowed to do. Let’s not charge them a higher interest rate so Congress is raising money off from their backs to be used for other purposes in the federal budget. In fact, let’s go a step further. Let’s charge them the same interest rate that the big banks on Wall Street are able to borrow off from right now.”
Kind’s focus is on lowering the debt load for students. His critics say the real problem is with the cost of the education itself.
In Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker has proposed cutting 300-million dollars from the University of Wisconsin System budget, which is getting mixed reactions from Republicans and absolutely no support from Democrats. The federal representative is hopeful the state’s leaders rethink that proposed cut. “And I hope there’s further scrutiny and discussion around that. One of the great things we have going for us as a state is the superb university system that’s been built up over the last couple of generations. We ought not do something precipitous now that could put that into jeopardy and leave our students behind when it comes to global competition.”
Many students in the past decade have graduated from college and have filed bankruptcy because they don’t make enough to pay their expenses and loans.
