Student Loans, College Tuition | featured news

Growing college enrollment has stretched student debt to a record number of U.S. households, burdening young, poor.

Congress may have averted a doubling of interest rates on millions of new federal student loans, but the fix is only for a year, leaving students on edge over whether they'll face a similar increase next summer.

Facing weekend deadlines for action, congressional leaders have agreed to deals overhauling the nation's transportation programs without a Republican provision forcing approval of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, and avoiding a doubling of interest rates for new student loans, congressional officials said Wednesday....

Congressional bargainers seem near an agreement that would avert a July 1 doubling of interest rates on federal loans to 7.4 million college students and end an election-year battle between President Barack Obama and Congress, Senate aides from both parties said Friday....

The Obama administration and 10 private colleges and state university systems are taking steps this week aimed at improving transparency about the cost of college, including loans and options for repaying them.

The political battle over President Obama’s plan to keep student loan interest rates from skyrocketing escalated as Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic proposal to tax wealthier earners to pay for it.

At dispute is how to provide funding that would prevent a jump in the interest rates for subsidized loans made by the federal government to undergraduate college students. The House of Representatives voted last week to keep the rate from doubling, but funded it by eliminating the Prevention and Public Health Fund that is part of President Obama’s health care law. (The House measure has little chance in the Senate controlled by Democrats.)

They want Congress to temporarily extend the current low rate on subsidized undergraduate Stafford loans.

President Obama kicked off a week of appeals to young voters on Saturday by urging Congress to maintain the interest rate on student loans, keeping the costs of college stable.

The federal student loan program seemed like a great idea back in 1965: Borrow to go to college now; pay it back later when you have a job.