The Senate had a big test this morning, and it flunked. Senate Republicans blocked a vote on the Reed-Harkin Student Loan Affordability Act – legislation that would freeze federal Stafford student loan interest rates at 3.4% before the big July 1st deadline. Let me just make it clear: This wasn’t my own bill to help students more by lowering interest rates to 0.75%, the same rate the banks pay. This was a bill that would simply extend the current 3.4% rate for two more years. We need to double the effort from people across the country to get the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act through the Senate before interest rates double on July 1st. Tell your senators that you want a vote. Now the Republicans tried to pass their own student loans bill just before the Reed-Harkin vote. Their bill would help the government make even bigger profits off of student loans. Can you believe that? Fighting for America’s students isn’t about politics. It’s about our values. Are we really a country that wants to push our kids tens of thousands of dollars into debt to go to school? Or are we a country that believes investing in our kids – from Head Start to college – to put the conditions in place so that everyone has the chance to succeed? The July 1st deadline should not be turned into an opportunity to make more money at the expense of young Americans. Senate Republicans should be ashamed of themselves today. We’ve received more than one million signatures in support of the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act. We need to make our voices heard if we’re going to help students before July 1st. School might be getting out right now, but we don’t have time for a summer break. Our students need you.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:40:28 +0000
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