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The
State PIRGs' Platform for Affordable Higher Education
Endorse
our platform below!
American
citizens should be able to attain a college education.
A college education improves our economy by teaching
specialized skills for the work force; it improves our
democracy by teaching active citizenship skills for
self-governance; and it also reinforces in our students
the critical need for serving our communities.
Unfortunately,
over 200,000 eligible college students opted not to
go to college last year due to financial obstacles;
many others have to elongate their college careers in
order to work to earn money for their education; and
hundreds of thousands more experience diminished career
options and heavy debt burden once they do graduate.
Recent
proposals in Congress would make pursuing a college
degree even more difficult. They include freezing student
aid funding levels for the next six years and raising
the cost of student loan borrowing overall! These proposals
take us in the wrong direction.
Across
the country, tuition is simply too high and there is
not enough aid to provide every student with an affordable
and accessible higher education. Skyrocketing cost,
too many cuts to student aid and too few grants are
creating a prohibitive atmosphere for Americans to attain
a college education.
We
need to provide an affordable and accessible higher
education to all American citizens. The state PIRGs
will promote the following policy platform to make college
more accessible and affordable:
- Uphold
the fixed rate option in student loan consolidation,
which allows borrowers to lock in low, predictable
interest rates. Allow borrowers to consolidate more
than once, to allow borrowers to take advantage of
the best interest rates.
- Improve
higher education access by increasing funding for
federal student aid programs, including a significant
increase to the Pell Grant award.
- Protect
borrowers from rising interest rates by lowering the
interest rate cap from 8.25 to 6.8 percent.
- Expand
loan forgiveness options for teachers, nurses, and
others in public service.
- Maximize
efficiencies within the current loan programs and
close lender subsidies that would free up money to
increase student aid funding.
- Work
with policy makers at the statewide level to develop
strategies for controlling rising tuition.
I
support the State PIRGs' Affordable Higher Education
platform, and I agree to participate in the effort to
promote policy solutions that will decrease the financial
obstacles facing Americans desiring a college education.
Please add my name to the "Launch" of this
campaign in early September!
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