How We Can Get Student-Loan Interest Rates Under Control

A new CAP column analyzes the potential interest rates in recently proposed student-loan legislation.

Part of a Series

Idea of the Day

Idea of the Day

On July 1, 2013, interest rates on federal subsidized Stafford student loans, which are provided to low- and middle-income students, are scheduled to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Congress acted to prevent an identical rate hike from going into effect on July 1, 2012, and is preparing to act to keep rates low again this year. There are key differences, however, between the various proposals to do so and unfortunately some of the proposals are worse than the status quo.

A new CAP column analyzes the potential interest rates in coming years under the key proposals—by President Barack Obama; Rep. John Kline (R-MN), whose proposal the House of Representatives approved last week; and several proposals introduced in the Senate.

For more on this topic, please see:

Proposals to Bring Student-Loan Interest Rates Under Control by David A. Bergeron and Tobin Van Ostern

The positions of American Progress, and our policy experts, are independent, and the findings and conclusions presented are those of American Progress alone. A full list of supporters is available here. American Progress would like to acknowledge the many generous supporters who make our work possible.