35 Marlborough Students to Be Affected by Failure of Scott Brown and Senate Republicans to Prevent Loan Rates from Doubling
Without action, interest rates on Stafford loans will double, adding an average of $1,000 per year to college cost for 35 residents of Marlborough
MARLBOROUGH– On July 1st, 35 Marlborough students will see their student loan interest rates double if U.S. Senator Scott Brown and his Republican colleagues in the Senate continue blocking plans to extend the current low interest rates. At the end of the month, interest rates on new loans are set to double from 3.4% to 6.8%, adding an average of $1,000 each year to the cost of attending college. Republican U.S. Senator Brown has already joined his GOP colleagues in voting to block legislation that would extend the lower rate. Currently, 195,000 students across the Commonwealth receive Stafford loans.
“Scott Brown should stand with Marlborough families, not Washington, DC Republicans, and stop blocking efforts to keep loan interest rates low and college affordable for middle-class families.” said Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair John Walsh. “His political games are going to cost 35 college students in Marlborough an average of $1,000 a year."
Republican Senator Scott Brown has already voted to block legislation that would have extended the current 3.4% interest rate and prevented the rate from spiking to 6.8%. Brown’s own proposal to keep the rate at its current level does not provide anywhere near the $6 billion required to pay for the legislation, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Massachusetts college student Brendan Concannon called on Brown today to abandon his phony proposal and stop blocking real efforts to keep rates low.
“My message to Scott Brown is clear – don’t double my rate,” said Concannon, a Bridgewater State University student and South Shore Regional Director of the College Democrats of Massachusetts. “College is expensive enough as it is, I don’t need Washington making it any tougher.”
Doug Philpott
9:32 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
Hmm, I have two sons in college and they don't have the lower rate, as a matter of
fact, what about the Hundreds of Marlborough College Students who have the 6.8%
rate, why not lower that, and while you are at it, have the same rate FOR EVERYONE! Why these loans have such high APR is mind boggling, when the
prime is less than 1% And while you are at it, set your sights on MEFA, that Dem
Controlled quasi public/private "state" agency full of patronage jobs that charges
close to 8%, and ask Liz Warren to take a pay cut.
There Should be NO two tiered system for these loans. Lower the 6.8 % rate andhave everyone pay at that rate. There is enough Scholarship and grant monies
around to help lower income students. As Lizzy Warren sez, we are "getting hammered", especially when we have to pay her $360K to teach 1 or 2 classes.
Joescarp
10:07 am on Saturday, June 23, 2012
Easy enough to do. All the Congress has to do is come up with offsetting reductions in the budget. When you're spending trillions, it should be easy enough to save a few bucks here and there on stupid patronage type projects.
Suzanne
6:35 pm on Saturday, June 23, 2012
I have 3 kids in college and another who's paying off her loan. Far more than 35 Marlborough kids are affected. Unless it's a private loan, all government funded loans should have the same interest rate. Lastly, there are not enough Scholarship and Grant monies to help lower income students and most kids getting the big scholarships are not lower income kids.
arnold
7:27 am on Monday, June 25, 2012
The place to start is for colleges to REDUCE EXPENSES. like the exorbitant salaries for tenured professors who only teach one or two classes a week, while contract employees carry the teaching load. (ala Liz Warren) Then to add insult to injury the Democrat unions EXTORT dues from the very individuals who do the work, forcing them to pay dues on their meager compensation.
But let's make the taxpayers fund the interest payments so the 'government' can extend free or reduced tuition for other while they pay full freight for their own children.
John J Brown III
11:22 am on Tuesday, June 26, 2012
News today is used the same way different religions use the Bible. Like a religion, the media chooses which snippets will best fit their agenda. In this case the Liberal agenda is to have you believe Scott Brown is against helping college students. That couldn't be further from the truth. What the media fails to report is all of the "pork" that was loaded into this bill by Democrats (other bills are filled with "pork" by Republican) and he won't vote to harm the majority to favor the minority. Washington needs now more than ever to stop spending cart blanche.
Right Side Bob
7:10 am on Sunday, July 1, 2012
How about addressing the rising cost of state college tuition by the liberals running them. We were told to expect 5-7% increase per year for our second son who is just entering college. Btw, we started saving 18yrs ago to pay for this and won't be relying on the govt to pay our way.