Millennial M a g a z i n e

THe Education IssueApril 2010

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Millennial MagazineApril 2010The Education Issue

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Fact Sheet

Public School Blues

The Millennial Age

Health Care & You

Intern on the Hill

Lowering the Cost of Higher Education

The college Price tag

Tough Odds

Drawing the Line

Cutthroat

Bridging the Gap

A Supreme Decision

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How Partisan Politics Affects Education

Breakdown of Obama’s Su-preme Court Nominees

Are last year’s graduates finding jobs?

Education Disparities Start in Primary SchoolsTechnology & Intelligence

Create a New Generation

What’s in the New Bill for You

A Studen’t Perspective on Working in the Capital

College Tuition Increases for Next Year’s Applicants

Student Loan Reform Aims for More College Graduates

Why do College Acceptance Rates Continue to Drop?

Current State of Affairs on Students Loan Reform

The American Public School Systems Falls in the Rankings

House SpeakerNancy Pelosi

RepresentativeGeorge Miller

RepresentativeDale Kildee

fact sheet

Highest Debt States of 2008 College Graduates

As Speaker her job is to keep the House of Repre-sentatives in order. Pelosi urged that student aid reform be attached to health care reform.

He is Chairman of the House education commit-tee. Miller held several press conferences to clear up the myths surround-ing student aid reform.

As the chair of the Sub-committee Early Child-hood, Kildee pledged his committee would work with the Obama admin-istration to get student reform passed.

3 Influential People in Student Aid Reform

States with the higest debt averagesfor college graduates

in 2008

1. DC $ 29,7932. IA $ 28,1743. CT $ 26,1384. NY $ 25,9505. NH $ 25,7856. MN $ 25,5587. PA $ 25,2198. VT $ 25,0479. RI $ 24,97310. ME $ 24,916

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Millennial Magazine 5

LOWERING THE COST OF HIGHER EDUCATIONBY ALEESA MANN

& ALEXA MURRAY

oing to college just got easier, at least that’s how the Obama administration sees it.

The Health and Education Recon-ciliation Act recently passed, making

the federal government the primary lender for student loans. The bill aims to save $68 billion in federal subsidies over a 10-year period, directing the savings towards Pell Grants to help make col-lege more affordable.

The law effec-tively removes private lenders such as Sal-lie Mae, Citi Student Loans and Wachovia Education Finance Inc. as originators of student loans.

Beginning July 1 all new federal loans will be originated through the Direct Loan Program, which allows the federal government to originate loans through the Department of Eduction. This change leaves students like Candace Robinson, a third-year law school student, with questions of where the money for school will come from and if the federal government will provide as much as private lenders. “I decided to get private loans because I didn’t qualify for federal loans in some cases,” Robinson said. “Also, because the federal loans I was given weren’t enough to cover my living expenses.” Previously, under the Federal Family

Education Loan Program, the federal govern-ment guaranteed student loans issued by private lenders. This arrangement left private lenders to oversee the payment of loans with interest rates as high as 19 percent, while the federal govern-ment assumed most of the risk. “I know a few of my interest rates are high, especially on my private loans, but it was either take the loan or drop out of school,” said Robin-son. “I understood that I would be paying back much more money than I had borrowed, but what choice did I have? What could I do?” “I will probably be paying back loans for-ever,” Robinson said. The Direct Loan Program hopes to elimi-nate situations such as Robinson’s, where borrow-ers are forced to pay interest rates they cannot afford. One of the provisions states that after 2014, monthly federal student loan payments will be capped at 10 percent of the borrowers annual income. “The Income Based Repayment program is still inexistence now, but these terms are more friendly to the student and provides them to re-ally get out into the work force, build a nest egg, and also provides them an incentive to go into public service,” said Corey Ealons, Director of Af-rican American Media and Coordinator of Special Projects for the White House. For students going into the public service, their loan balance maybe forgiven in 10 or 20 years, depending on the amount of their monthly payments.

“I will probably be paying back loans forever,” Robinson said.

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