KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM) — U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow made a stop at Western Michigan University on Tuesday to talk with a handful of students about legislation she has authored that would reduce the financial burden of going to college.
Loans for bachelor’s degrees could be refinanced to 3.9 percent under her Reducing Educational Debt Act. That would be significant, as many older loans carry interest rates of 6.5 percent or higher.
“We have students that are going to college and doing everything right and working hard, everything that we told them to do,” Stabenow said. “They’re coming out with mountains and mountains of debt, and that’s wrong.”
It would also tie Pell Grant increases to inflation and would provide two years of free community college.
It’s not likely the Democrat-sponsored legislation, as it stands right now, will pick up any traction in the Republican-controlled Congress, however.
– Anthony Pollreisz
