Brown visiting UC to discuss student loan hike
Business Courier – Nearly 57,000 students in Southwest Ohio could be facing higher interest rates on their federally subsidized Stafford loans if Congress doesn’t act before July 1.
The current interest rate on the loans is set at 3.4 percent, but the rate is scheduled to double July 1 to 6.8 percent. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is scheduled to visit the University of Cincinnati campus Thursday to call for passage of his bill that would maintain the current rate.
Brown’s legislation, Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012, would keep college tuition more affordable for hundreds of thousands of Ohio college students, according to a news release. Previously, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 cut the fixed interest rates on newly subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduate students to 3.4 percent, but the interest rates on any new subsidized Stafford loans will double to 6.8 percent on July 1. The increase would not apply to loans that are currently in repayment or that have already been disbursed.
