Public Supports Low Interest College Loans

Once again, Congress is at odds with the wishes of a significant majority of the American public -- this time on the subject of low-interest college loans. On July 1st, due to congressional inaction, interest rates for college loans doubled -- from 3.4% to 6.8%. Congress was unable to take action because the two parties can't agree on what to do.

The Democrats wanted to keep the interest rates low for college loans, and they wanted to put a cap on interest rates to keep them low. Republicans wanted to let the market decide what the interest rate should be (with no cap). The Republican plan would result in a rate even higher than the new 6.8% rate (about 8.5%), and could possibly result in it climbing much higher.

The Republican plan ignores the fact that these are government loans (not private loans), and keeping the interest rates low would actually be cost-effective (since more students would be able to afford to get a college degree, and that increased education would result in their paying much more in taxes over their working life -- more than could be gotten through increased interest rates). This is strange, since the Republicans are the ones who are always preaching that government programs should be cost-effective. And in this instance, their zeal to push their free market ideology has them actually following a path that is the least cost-effective.

It also has them championing a policy that the American people oppose. A significant majority of Americans think keeping interest rates low for college loans is good policy, and they support it. This is demonstrated in a new YouGov Poll (conducted on July 2nd and 3rd of 1,000 nationwide adults).
The poll showed that at least 66% of the general public (about 2 out of every 3 Americans) do not want higher interest rates for college loans. They support keeping those interest rates low.

And that desire to keep college loan interest rates low cuts across all political, age, sex, race, and educational demographic lines (see chart above). The lowest percentage is among Republicans, but even 53% of them support keeping the interest rates low.

Congress needs to heed the will of the people. They need to restore the 3.4% interest rate (or lower it), and that need to put a cap on the rate so it doesn't climb any higher. This is just smart policy. In our new technological society, education is needed more than ever -- and the nations that have the most educated citizens will also have the healthiest economies. Discouraging people from pursuing a college education (or saddling them with a huge debt) is not the path to a bright future.