{"id":12833,"date":"2012-05-04T14:17:16","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T18:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=12833"},"modified":"2012-05-04T14:17:17","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T18:17:17","slug":"senator-sherrod-brown-visits-wright-state-argues-against-scheduled-student-debt-interest-rate-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/05\/04\/senator-sherrod-brown-visits-wright-state-argues-against-scheduled-student-debt-interest-rate-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Sherrod Brown visits Wright State, argues against scheduled student debt interest rate hike"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

U.S. Senator from Ohio Sherrod Brown reminded the crowd that national student loan debt, a sum he says is about $800 billion, is now greater than credit card and auto loan debt combined.<\/p><\/div>\n

Roughly 10,000 students at Wright State University depend on subsidized Stafford loans to go to college. Soon after graduation, they all know they\u2019ll have to pay it back with 3.4% interest. But this summer, that rate could double.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe simply can\u2019t allow the interest on student loans to increase,\u201d said U.S. Senator from Ohio Sherrod Brown at his May 4 press conference in the Student Union.<\/p>\n

Several years ago through bi-partisan agreement, the current rate was locked in, said Brown but that agreement is due to expire July 1, effectively doubling the interest rate for about 382,000 students in Ohio.<\/p>\n

Joined by Wright State student body President Paul Reed, student body Vice President Nick Warrington and Michelle Anderson, a student-worker in the Office of Financial Aid, Brown argued the hike would be crushing for the future of education.\u00a0 He reminded the crowd that national student loan debt, a sum he says is about $800 billion, is now greater than credit card and auto loan debt combined.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Brown and three Wright State students spoke at the May 4 news conference.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe average student in this country who graduates from college has $27,000 in debt. It didn\u2019t used to be that way and I don\u2019t think we have any business piling more debt on top of that,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

According to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the rate hike would add about $1,000 in loan debt per loan for the average student.<\/p>\n

Brown, Senator Jack Reed (Rhode Island) and Senator Tom Harkin (Iowa) are the lead sponsors of the proposed legislation, Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012<\/em>, which he said would keep the loan at its current rate and pay for the difference by closing an unrelated tax loophole.<\/p>\n

Brown said it\u2019s particularly important to take action to protect universities like Wright State that have kept tuition costs down and have such a large portion of the student body that are first-generation college students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis hike will be felt very much at a school like Wright State, which does a good job of keeping its tuition in check, and at places like Sinclair and at other community colleges too, where the cost of higher ed is still a burden for so many families because their parents can\u2019t afford to lend them money,\u201d said Brown.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roughly 10,000 students at Wright State University depend on subsidized Stafford loans to go to college. Soon after graduation, they all know they\u2019ll have to pay it back with 3.4% interest. But this summer, that rate could double. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":12835,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[729,725,715,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12833"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12852,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833\/revisions\/12852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}