June 29, 2012
HACU
Statement on Student Loan Interest Rate Legislation
HACU commends the U.S. Congress for passing legislation on June
29, 2012 that will preserve financially manageable education for students and
their families by maintaining current interest rates on need-based student
loans at 3.4 percent.
Interest rates for
need-based student loans would have doubled for students starting July 1, 2012,
but Congressional action before the 4th of July recess legislated
interest rate relief to students for another year, at a time when they can
least afford additional costs.
Congress was able to save an average of $1,000 in additional repayment costs for 7.4 million students, of which more than 4.5 million are women, 1.5 million African American, and nearly one million Hispanic. Young Americans have the highest unemployment rate of any other age group, and two-thirds of the class of 2010 graduated with student loan debt, with many encumbered with an average of $25,000 of student loan debt.