WNY College Students Join Hochul to Discuss Ways to Make College More Affordable

Press Release

Following a roundtable discussion with administration officials and students at Daemen College in Williamsville this morning, Congresswoman Kathy Hochul announced that she has co-sponsored legislation that would keep interest rates low for need-based student loans; preventing the interest rate from doubling for Federal Stafford Student Loans on July 1, 2012, from 3.4% to 6.8%.

"Low interest student loans are a necessity for low and middle-income students who aspire to attend college every year," said Congresswoman Hochul. "With over 90% of students here at Daemen on some sort of financial assistance, it is crucial we keep college affordable for all our students. But when you couple the doubling of student loan rates with the Ryan budget's proposed cuts to Pell Grants, we are making an already expensive college education even more difficult to finance for most students."

"Representative Hochul's support of low-interest Stafford Loans and Pell Grants is applauded by all of us in higher education," said Daemen College President Dr. Edwin Clausen. "If the country expects to reach the 60 percent mark for college graduates, it can do that only by keeping Stafford interest low and augmenting the availabilities of the monies available through Pell."

In 2007, Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA), which lowered student loan rates to 3.4% for a four-year period. The provision of the CCRAA that provides relief for student loans is set to expire on July 1st of this year, causing the interest rates on loans disbursed starting that date to double. If Congress does not act, the over 400,000 student borrowers in New York State for the 2012-2013 school year, and over seven million students nationally, will incur an additional $6.3 billion in repayment costs, making loan repayment about $1,000 more expensive for each student annually.

In an effort to keep Pell Grants available for college students, Congresswoman Hochul voted against the Ryan Budget, which would reduce the Pell Grant program by $200 billion over the next 10 years, eliminating this funding for more than one million students and reducing awards for 9.6 million students by $1,000.

Hochul added, "I regularly hear from parents in Western New York about the rising cost of education for their children. Student loan debt now exceeds $1 trillion -- a figure even higher than credit card debt. In today's tough job market, graduating students have enough difficulty finding that first job. To be strapped with loans with interest rates higher than market rates is fundamentally unfair. Instead of creating more challenges for young people to get the education and skills they need, we should be making it easier and providing them with more incentives to go to school."

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