How Obama Wants to Change Student Loan Interest Rates

Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Buried in President Obama’s proposed budget is a big change to federal student loans. According to the Department of Education’s draft budget, Obama wants the interest rate on federal loans to be pegged to market rates annually. Currently, the rate is 6.8 percent for most loans, with a subsidized rate of 3.4 percent for needy undergrads. Congress set the current rate for loans in 2001, and in 2007 voted to lower the subsidized rates. The economy’s changed since then, but the rates haven’t been adjusted to reflect today’s low-interest-rate environment.

Read article