By: Aaron Pabon/Contributing Writer
President Barack Obama outlined an economic plan during his State of the Union Address on Jan. 24, which included a strategy that would affect tuition for University students.
“At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July,” said Obama during his televised speech.
The president took aim at colleges and universities, and pledged that if they can not stop or fix the rising cost of tuition, “the funding you get from taxpayers will go down.”
“I feel that our President really understands the problem with the raise in tuition around the nation,” said international relations and economics major Leonardo Curiel, who is the president of the FIU College Democrats. “He knows that it is to every state to decide where their money is going to be spent. He asked states to make higher education a priority when they decide on each state’s budget.”
The “Pay As You Earn” proposal of the Obama Administration will reduce monthly payments for more than one and a half million current college students and borrowers.
It will also allow about 1.6 million students the ability to cap their loan payments at 10 percent starting next year and permit an estimated 6 million students and recent college graduates to consolidate their loans.
“Pay As You Earn,” is set to reduce students’ loan interest rates and forgive the balance of their debt after 20 years of payments.
This may serve as a relief to graduate students who suffered the loss of subsidies on their loans earlier this year as a product of the Budget Control Act.
“I was appreciative of his statements about wanting to increase the number of students in work study and keeping the students interest rates low” said Francisco Valines, director of financial aid and enrollment services at the University. “Hopefully Congress will come up with funding to increase the work study program.”
The address came just shortly after Florida House leaders in Tallahassee put forth a proposal to raise tuition at public colleges and universities by 8 percent as part of a new budget plan.
“It is a shame that our legislature considers other spendings more important than the education of the future of this state and this country,” said Curiel.
In 2009, the Florida Legislature allowed the state’s public universities to increase their tuition rates by up to 15 percent each year until tuition reaches the national average of $3,735 per semester.
The proposal would also reduce Florida’s contribution to higher education by approximately 6 percent, and tighten the requirements for Bright Futures scholarships.
It would decrease the time that students have to start using funds from Bright Futures after high school graduation from three years to two.
Obama concluded his message of college tuition by saying “higher education can’t be a luxury – it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.”
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