East Windsor Teen Opposes Bill Raising Student Loan Interest Rates

East Windsor teen Gabrielle Wickizer was one of three students on a teleconference Thursday with U.S. Rep. Rush Holt opposing the Republican effort to increase student loan interest rates.

Wickizer, 16, is currently a sophomore at Hightstown High School and serves on Holt’s student advisory committee. She has just begun looking at colleges, where she wants to study either engineering or math, and is trying to figure out what her family can afford. “In doubling loan rates, this will make loans harder to pay off, and it makes me question if taking a loan out to go to my choice school is worth it,” Wickizer said.

The teleconference concerned legislation H.R. 1911 which asks for an amendment of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish interest rates for new loans made on, or after, July 1, 2013. This bill passed the House of Representatives on Thursday morning in a 224 to 193 vote. Holt voted against it.

If this legislation is passed by the Senate, “it will turn the federal government into a Wall Street bank,” Holt said, explaining that the bill will raise more revenue and gain profits from punitive and variable student loan interest rates. The legislation would also abolish the current low fixed interest rates, Holt said.

The Congressional Research Service estimates that this bill will generate higher rates over the next decade if passed than if it is not passed, Holt explained. And some of the rates could jump to as high as 10.5 percent.

“Most of us expect the federal government to help students bear the cost of college because it is in the public interest. Individuals and the economy at large think that this is a good investment, but the Republican plan would actually use this to make profit off the student loans. It’s a backdoor way of raising taxes,” the Congressman said.

Will Casaine, the Director of Financial Aid at The College of New Jersey, said that student loan debt within the United States now exceeds one trillion dollars and two-thirds of college students are graduating with loan debt, which ultimately is a drain on the nation's economy.

The other participants on the call were 20-year-old Anthony Covington, a Rutgers University rising junior, and 27-year-old Sharo Atmeh, a Rutgers University graduate from 2007. Both Covington and Atmeh are in New Jersey’s Educational Opportunity Fund.

Atmeh has taken out $150,000 in student loans to pay for college and Harvard Law School. Covington, who currently studies political science and business at Rutgers, depends on federal student loans and Pell grants, in addition to the New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund, to help him pay for college.

Atmeh said that his high student loans are preventing him from moving on with his life. “As you can imagine, I would love to become a homeowner, but that dream will have to wait until after I repay much of my high amounts of student loan debt."

Covington said that he is not sure if he will be able to afford graduate school with these possible rate increases. “It’s a shame because you’d think that education should be at the forefront, but if we were to impose these types of interest rates increases I think it would only hinder our progression as a country.”