Act now to make student loans more affordable!

We know that students are borrowing more than ever for college. Paying those loans back will get even harder when interest rates jump on July 1st. The Department of Education has some mechanisms that are supposed to help borrowers when they have trouble keeping up with high monthly payments, but most routes to relief are dead ends or impossible to navigate because of confusing and contradictory rules.

It’s time to fix the broken rules so that they actually help student loan borrowers. An unusual alliance of students, the lending industry, parents, and higher education groups has come together in support of an “administrative petition” to the Department of Education. The petition calls for changes to make required loan payments more affordable by linking them to what people actually earn. Learn more about it here. Secretary Spellings has the power to help students and their families right now, without waiting for a deadlocked partisan Congress to act. The secretary needs to hear from you! Please take a moment to send a letter, and tell her you support the goals of the petition. Student loans are supposed to help young people, not hold us back from the opportunities higher education provides.

[Guest blog by Edie Irons, Project on Student Debt]