Keeping the American Dream Alive for Students (Video)

On Wednesday, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Congress member Xavier Becerra (D-CA) held a roundtable discussion at on the fate of federal fixed-rate student loans, which are set to double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1 for some 7 million graduate and undergraduate students nationwide, including 570,000 in California.

Unless Congress acts, the doubling of interest rates on the so-called Stafford loans would add an average of $1,000 annually to the debt burden of every student borrower, making it virtually impossible “to keep the American Dream alive for our kids and the next generation of leaders,” Becerra told a news conference following the roundtable at the Johnson Student Center on the Oxy campus.

No less than two-thirds of college students who graduated in 2010 had student loan debts averaging $25,000, Becerra said, adding that Republicans have disregarded calls for bipartisan action in the U.S. Congress, where a bill to keep a reduced 3.4-percent interest rate on student loans expires July 1.

The May 23 roundtable was attended by administrators and officials from half a dozen colleges and universities, including Occidental President Jonathan Veitch and UCLA Financial Aid Director Ron Johnson. Besides students from Oxy, students from several University of California campuses, USC, Cal State L.A. and Loyola Marymount University also attended the discussion.