The federal government should stop making profits from student loans, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a leading consumer activist and advocate for student loan reform in Congress. Warren, citing a Congressional Budget Office report, said the government stands to bring in $51 billion in profits this year, a disputed figure that has economists taking sides and has left Warrenopen to criticism.
With student-loan debt nearing $1.2 trillion, “it’s a threat to our students’ futures” and to the economy, Warren told higher education journalists Sept. 28 at a conference at Northeastern University, where she outlined her ideas for making both loans and college more affordable.
Over the summer, Warren was a tenacious critic of both Republican and Democratic bills aimed at preventing student loan rates from doubling on July 1 from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. As EdSource Today has reported, the final legislation passed by Congress ties rates on federally subsidized and unsubsidized Stafford loans and PLUS loans to the 10-year Treasury note, but caps interest rates.
Warren co-sponsored an alternative bill, the Keep Student
States in Motion
Tracking Education Over Time
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