May 23, 2013

CONTACT YOUR SENATORS!

FROM REBUILD THE DREAM: Does America really love Wall Street bankers NINE TIMES more than we love our struggling students? If you are a Wall Street banker who needs a little cash, the federal government will loan you money through the "discount window" with virtually no interest -- as little as 0.75%. But if you are a young person trying to get an education... the rate on federal Stafford student loans is set to double! Unless something is done, it will go from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1. That is right: We would be charging America's youth nine times more than we ask from the mega-profitable banks that caused that crisis in the first place. Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, which would give students the same deal that banks get. We need to get behind this in a big way. Sign: Tell your senators to co-sponsor Senator Warren's bill. If you can believe it, this story is actually WORSE than it appears. The federal government this year made $51 billion in profit off the student loan program. That is about as much as the four biggest Wall Street banks earned all together! The average student graduates with $26,000 in student debt, and 10% are $50,000 in debt or more. Americans hold more than $1 trillion in student debt. Tuition costs are skyrocketing. Youth unemployment is the problem no one will talk about. On top of it all, last year's one-year extension of the low 3.4% rate for federal Stafford loans is set to expire on July 1st. The ONLY reason that extension passed at all is because people like you made it an issue in Washington, D.C. You wrote more than 300,000 letters and made tens of thousands of calls, and you saved student millions of dollars. We should be proud -- and ready to fight for fairness again. And this time, we should fight for bolder, more long-term solutions. Senator Warren's bill is the best idea I have heard in a long time. (I just hope it can be extended for more than one year!) We are fighting for real change and backing champions like Elizabeth Warren. Are you ready to sign on? If we can afford to loan cheap money to banks, we can afford to invest in education. TELL YOUR SENATOR: SUPPORT SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN'S BANK ON STUDENTS LOAN FAIRNESS ACT Support Senator Warren's Bank on Student Loans Fairness Act which provides a one-year fix to the impending doubling of students rate hike by setting the student loan interest rates at the same level the Federal Reserve offers to big banks at a rate of 0.75%., keeping college education affordable for the 99%.