Progress Illinois - Duckworth, College Students & Administrators Discuss Ways To Make Higher Ed More Affordable

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By Ellyn Fortino

Certain student loan interest rates are set to double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, come July 1. The rate hike could potentially cost millions of people who rely on college financial assistance an additional $1,000 each school year.

The added cost is too much for some students to bear, said U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D, IL-8) at a college affordability roundtable discussion Thursday.

"I remember what that was like as a student, when I was counting down to the last five bucks that I had until my next check came," she said at the discussion, held at the College of DuPage (COD).

The extra $1,000 over the life of a student's Stafford loan, for example, could be so prohibitively expensive, she said, that it could prevent some students from enrolling in college or returning to school next year.

"We can't let the student loan rates double. We can't let young Americans have their dreams thwarted," she told about 20 community college administrators and students. "If not just for them, but for the competitiveness of this country, because our competitors around the globe are not putting this kind of burden on their students."

Tamikia Charles, 36, a part-time student at COD, said student loans have helped her significantly as she grapples to pay for other things not associated with school, like the care of her child.

"I'm really afraid about these interest rates going up," she told Duckworth. "I'm just looking to find out what's going to be done, and how is it going to affect me long-term?"

Duckworth said she's a co-sponsor of a pending bill, the Student Loan Relief Act of 2013, that would extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate for Stafford student loans an additional two years. U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D, CT-2) is the main sponsor of the bill, H.R. 1595.

Congress voted to extend the lower rate last year when it was also scheduled to double in July.

Duckworth said first, the extension bill needs to pass, and then a long-term solution needs to be reached on the issue. If the rates do end up doubling, they should be increased over a longer period of time and indexed to inflation, she said.

Those at the table offered other ways to help bring down the cost of higher education, and encouraged Duckworth to help create more incentives for businesses to form partnerships with community colleges for paid student internships.

Phil Burdick, an administrator at Harper College, said the school demanded that manufacturers that work with the school provide paid internships to its students.

"That makes the programs much more successful, and it allows us to attract the kind of students that they're looking for," he told Duckworth.

He said manufacturers are in need of employees, so they are willing to offer the paid internships, "but it's been a much harder sell for some of the other sectors that don't need employees, that don't have the kind of shortages that manufacturers do."

Roosevelt University administrator Eric Tammes said it would be helpful if there were ways to streamline the internship process to ensure that students end up in one that will provide a quality experience in their area of study.

Amy Perrin, an administrator at Elgin Community College, said the Federal Work Study program is also key in helping students afford school.

The college covers 25 percent of work-study costs and the U.S. Department of Education pays for the other 75 percent, she said.

"We are allocated a certain amount of money every year," Perrin said. "And that's what I would like you to work on ... because it is getting cut, or at least we're fearing it's going to be cut."

Mary Crowe, also with Elgin Community College, said the work-study program is crucial because both the schools and the students benefit. The work-study program is also flexible, accommodating students' school schedules.

"We provide that flexibility that they can't get necessarily if they are out in the community, so I would hate to see that the work-study area wasn't continued," she said.

Duckworth said she would take the suggestions back to Washington.

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