Background

Higher education in America continues to be critical for both individual success and the economic and political health of our country. While college attendance has grown over the past two decades, state and federal aid has failed to keep pace with the rising cost of higher education. As a result, more students than ever must rely on student loans to pay for a four-year degree and start their post-collegiate lives with significant debt.

Over the past two decades undergraduate student loans have supplanted grant aid as the primary way students finance their college education. In 1999-2000, the average student loan debt for a full-time student at a four-year institution was $16,928, up from $9,188 in 1992-93. An increased reliance on student loans has resulted in a growing number of debt-ridden graduates entering the workforce. In 2004, two-thirds of all four-year college graduates left school with student debt. Student loan debt can limit post-collegiate career options like teaching and social work. In the most extreme cases, burdensome debt can lead some students to default, resulting in wage garnishment and ruined credit.

In February of 2006, Congress passed the largest cut to higher education in the history of federal student aid. This “raid on student aid” took approximately $12 billion out of the federal student loan programs to help finance additional tax cuts for some of the wealthiest Americans.

This year Congress has taken first steps to make college more affordable by passing legislation in the House to reduce student loan interest rates for low- and middle-income students.

U.S. PIRG is working to ensure that all students have access to an affordable education and that Congress prioritizes college affordability this year.