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| Graduation Day |
Considering my loan repayment papers just arrived in the mail with a start day promptly six months after my graduation date, I applaud President Obama for his newest efforts in education. As a part of his Economic Relief Plan, the president spoke in front of college students in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday to speak on a new program designed to help college graduates reasonably manage student loan dept. Per reports, the average student loan dept for a college graduate is $24,000 as of 2009. I can tell you that number is significantly higher now as the cost of attending college increases every year. One aspect of President Obama’s new plan encourages students to consolidate student loans (given they have 2 or more federal loans) to receive a lower interest rate on repayment. The interest rate break would be 0.5%. This new plan would also reduce the repayment from 25 to 20 years with the payment amount being reduced to only 10% of earnings compared to the previous 15%. Another aspect of this new proposed plan is that after 20 years the total dept has not been paid, the debt will be relieved. This is not to say we are allowed to not make payments. This plan is set to take effect in 2014.
With college costs rising every year along with unemployment rates doing the same, it is past time for our government to realize that if a new college graduate has not found a career to support the student loans they have, it is almost impossible for them to repay under the current terms and still support themselves. As a recent college graduate, I want my degree to mean something, and I don’t want it to mean that I am just another statistic of a struggling and diminishing middle class that went to college to make a better life for myself and now can’t because I am literally paying my life away. What are your thoughts on the current economic situation and what President Obama is proposing? Get on the Radar.
Trying to Achieve the American Dream,
TerashaNicole
See interview withEducation Secretary, Arne Duncan, on tips from college graduates, parents and college hopefuls on CNN.
Photo:www.studentloanscentral.com
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