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Congress has successfully clamped down the college loan interest rates. Three cheers to them! Rate of student loans interest will remain at the current 3.2 per cent as opposed to the original proposal of doubling it to 6.4 per cent. This will however remain in effect for a year. The same fight will be raging in the Congress next year.

As our country heads to the polls in November, people especially those involved with higher education in some way or the other must keep these aspects in mind. Before they cast their vote, teachers, recent college grads, those enrolled in higher education and parents must carefully weigh the pros and cons of voting for their preferred candidate.

Unless we help medium and low income students complete their education, we will be unable to achieve our President’s dream of leading the world in percentage of AA or BA degrees. College students are hurt in other ways by the Congress in spite of clamping down interest rates. Interest on loans will not be subsidized any more by the federal government starting right away.

Interest on the loan starts right away as compared to earlier when students had to pay their loans back only after they graduate. The cost of interest was also subsidized. Students who do not have the money to pay for their graduation take out loans.

Most of them who cannot afford college work long hours to pay for necessities. They are now further burdened with these payments. Especially after keeping rates down, this move by Congress is like a stab at the back.

There is no six month grace period for graduating students and they will have to start paying their loans the moment they complete their graduation. This does not make any sense at all. Many students are finding this extremely difficult and they are forced to move back home with their parents.

Many a time, public policy has favoured sub groups that are unable to make loan payments. For example, large companies have been allowed to take subsidized loans and make a delayed payment on them and mortgage rates have been restructured for mortgage holders.

We make lofty statements about how our young people are our future and we set very harsh standards for them, even worse than what we set for corporations. According to Congress, these are economically challenging times and these two moves will help the country save at least $20 billion. We must realize that doing this will only result in dropping out of some students from pursuing higher education and in the long run, this is only detrimental to our progress.

For instance, those who are good at science and wish to pursue Ph.D. in that field may decide to do just BA degree because they cannot afford it. This makes us all losers.  Congress has chosen to use the budget balancing rhetoric to wrap their limited vision and this is definitely short-sighted. The blame here is not on the Congress. The blame is on the voters who have chosen such leaders.