Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise to speak in support of the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act.

I want to first acknowledge my colleague Senator Brown of Ohio for his leadership. They have Ohio State, we have the University of Minnesota, and both of us have met with students from these States who have told us firsthand what they are experiencing every single day. I have talked to students at the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State in Mankato, where my father-in-law taught for many years, and they have told me about their own situations, where they may have five siblings and there is absolutely no way their parents, both of whom are working, can afford to send their kids to college without loans.

I have talked to a young woman in Mankato whose mom was helping with the tuition, and then suddenly her mom lost her job and she couldn't help anymore, parents who have gone out on disability who can no longer help anymore.

We have to ask ourselves as a country, when those things happen, when you have a student who may be the first in their family to ever go to college, are we going to turn our back on them and say: No, we don't want you to go to college? Well, that is not going to work in our country. That is not going to work, because in Minnesota the numbers just came out, and up to 2018, of all the new jobs created, 70 percent are going to require some kind of postsecondary education. Half of them are going to require 1-year to 2-year degrees, the other half are going to require 4-year degrees or more. We know those facts. We know how we are going to be able to compete in this world, and that is by having educated workers. To do that, we cannot turn our back on the students who may be in a situation where they can work part time.

There was one girl I met at the University of Minnesota who was working a 50-hour paid job every week in addition to the classload, in addition to going to school. These students are working hard, and we must make sure they are able to complete their college and complete their degrees. College tuition and fees have been rising more rapidly than household income over the last two decades, and it is becoming more and more difficult for students and their families to afford these costs.

We know that student loan debt has reached record levels. College seniors owed an average of $25,000 in student loan debt upon graduating in 2010, with a total loan debt reaching $1 trillion. This is what we are dealing with.

I know when I had student loans I paid them off, and, Mr. President, you will be happy to know that I met my husband right after I had paid off my loans and he still owed over $20,000 in student loans, but I married him anyway.

I have had firsthand experience in what it is like to pay off these loans but never in these amounts our students today are facing. While it is normally good to be above average, my home State is, unfortunately, above average in student loan debt. We rank fourth in the Nation. The average Minnesota student graduates from college with more than $29,000 in loan debt.

As college costs skyrocket and student loan debt climbs, we have to consider what this means for students today and what effect this will have on our future. At a time when our global economy demands more of our workforce, we must focus on the foundation of our future prosperity, and that is education, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and math. To advance in those fields, you need at least a 2-year degree or a 4-year degree. We know that. We must do more to expand higher education opportunities and make college affordable for our students. It is one of the best investments we can make in the long-term success for America. That is because education doesn't just pay off for students, it also pays off for our country in the form of a skilled workforce and a competitive economy.

We have seen this in my own State, where we are home to one of the best skilled, most educated workforces in the country. That is the reason we are first per capita for Fortune 500 companies. I can tell you it is not the weather. These companies did not elect to move to Minnesota and to stay in Minnesota because of our winters. They came in large part because of the educated workforce, because we had people who could do the jobs and create the inventions. At 3M, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, they have as many inventions as they have employees. They average one invention for each employee. That is a fact. Look at the numbers. Why is that? Because we have the educated workforce to fill those jobs.

We also know that students today, both those in college and those who are considering college, face many unexpected obstacles, including the pressure to pay for higher education. As I mentioned, when I visited students at the University of Minnesota and also Minnesota State at Mankato, I heard firsthand about their experiences and how hard they were working to get those degrees. These students face many hardships and many sacrifices, but they continue to move forward and they are determined to get their education. The reality is that students can work, save money, and be totally responsible about saving for and paying for college, but life can bring unexpected challenges, and students need help through access to low-interest loans. That is all we are talking about here, low-interest loans.

Interest rates on Stafford student loans are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1 of this year. Unless Congress intervenes, 7 million students will see higher interest rates on their student loans--a dramatic increase in the interest rate that does not make sense at a time when the economy is still struggling to recover and students are facing ever higher college costs and young graduates are having a hard time finding jobs. I know how valuable these loans are to students, and that is why I am a cosponsor of the Student Loan Affordability Act, which would prevent the rate hike and ensure college remains affordable. That would affect this doubling of the interest rate for, in my State alone, 200,000 students. Think what we want those 200,000 students to do. We want those students to be out there inventing the next Post-it note for 3M. We want them out there inventing the next pacemaker. We want them out there inventing the next Google. That is what this is about. That is how our economy has run. We are a country that makes and invents products, makes them and exports them to the world. The only way we do that is with affordable education.

I have heard from hundreds of Minnesotans who say the costs are putting a strain on their families and making college seem out of reach. This is unacceptable, and we must act now.

I know this firsthand, as I explained, not only from what I have seen in my State, what I have seen in the interrelationship between education and business, but in my own life. My grandpa was an iron ore miner. He worked 1,500 feet under the ground in the mines in north Minnesota. He never graduated from college. He never even graduated from high school. He saved money in a coffee can in the basement of their little house, this small house where they literally only had a shower in the basement. He saved money in that coffee can to send my dad and his brother to college. They were the first in that family of Slovenian immigrants--the first to go to college. They went to college. My uncle became an engineer living in Rochester, MN. My dad went to the 2-year junior college, got a degree from what is now Vermilion Community College, then went on to the University of Minnesota, got his journalism degree, joined the AP, and then went on to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, where he became an award-winning journalist. He traveled the world. He got to interview everyone from Ginger Rogers to Mike Ditka to Ronald Reagan. That is my dad's life, and it all started because his parents believed in education but, most importantly, his country believed in education--the United States of America.

That is what this issue is about. It is about progress, it is about families, and it is about moving this country forward.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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