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Musgrave votes 'no' on interest-rate bill
The legislation, which received broad bipartisan support, would save the average college borrower about $4,500.
Vimal Patel
Issue date: 1/19/07 Section: News
Straayer said there are those on the right and left who have unbending ideologies, and Musgrave is one of them.
"You can call it rigid, you can call it principled," Straayer said. "Whether you like her or dislike her, she's got a particular ideological compass and she runs with it. Period."
Student debt is greater than it has ever been. Fewer than half of graduates had student loans in 1993, whereas nearly two-thirds did in 2004.
At CSU, the average graduate had about $16,900 in debt in 2005, compared with about $13,800 in 2001, according to the Project on Student Debt.
Lenders like Sallie Mae, who would eat the estimated $6 billion cost of slicing the interest rate, are opposed to the bill.
"A strategy of raiding a financial aid program to fund modest proposals is inadequate to the challenge," said Kevin Bruns, executive director of America's Student Loan Providers, a group that represents leading lenders, according to the Associated Press.
Sandy Calhoun, director of financial aid at CSU, said that the legislation overall will eventually benefit students, but she too had some concerns.
"I don't think the reduction of the interest rate necessarily increases access to higher education," she said.
Although the full benefit of the new interest rate would be felt only by students entering college in 2011 or later, the first incremental decrease - to 6.12 percent on the unpaid balance of the loan - would impact students who receive their first loan disbursement on or after July 1, 2007.
Those students would save about $2,200 over the life of an average-sized loan.
Managing Editor Vimal Patel can be reached at news@collegian.com.
"You can call it rigid, you can call it principled," Straayer said. "Whether you like her or dislike her, she's got a particular ideological compass and she runs with it. Period."
Student debt is greater than it has ever been. Fewer than half of graduates had student loans in 1993, whereas nearly two-thirds did in 2004.
At CSU, the average graduate had about $16,900 in debt in 2005, compared with about $13,800 in 2001, according to the Project on Student Debt.
Lenders like Sallie Mae, who would eat the estimated $6 billion cost of slicing the interest rate, are opposed to the bill.
"A strategy of raiding a financial aid program to fund modest proposals is inadequate to the challenge," said Kevin Bruns, executive director of America's Student Loan Providers, a group that represents leading lenders, according to the Associated Press.
Sandy Calhoun, director of financial aid at CSU, said that the legislation overall will eventually benefit students, but she too had some concerns.
"I don't think the reduction of the interest rate necessarily increases access to higher education," she said.
Although the full benefit of the new interest rate would be felt only by students entering college in 2011 or later, the first incremental decrease - to 6.12 percent on the unpaid balance of the loan - would impact students who receive their first loan disbursement on or after July 1, 2007.
Those students would save about $2,200 over the life of an average-sized loan.
Managing Editor Vimal Patel can be reached at news@collegian.com.
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