With the first student loan repayments looming in November for one million 2015 graduates, Senate Democrats renewed their charge that college debt is a crisis Republicans are refusing to help fix.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has been unsuccessfully pushing legislation to lower interest on the federally funded loans.
She said it is “obscene” the government stands to make $66 billion on loans granted between 2007 and 2012.
“When we yoke (graduates) to 20 years of debt repayment, we have failed our country. It is a moral issue,” said Warren.
Putting a personal spin on the cause, Warren said she paid only $50 a semester when she attended a commuter college.
“It opened a million doors for me,” said Warren, who has taught at Harvard Law School.
Citing a recent New York Times editorial claiming law schools are milking the federal Direct Plus Loan Program, which allows their students to borrow the entire cost of tuition and living expenses, Senate Assistant Minority Leader Dick Durbin pointed out that Georgetown University Law School charges $65,000 per year.
“When I ask the presidents of law school why they charge so much, they say it is because we can,” Durbin said.
Durbin also attacked for-profit colleges, stating they are responsible for 40 percent of federal student loan defaults.
Connecticut Senator Christopher Murphy joined in the criticism, pointing out the biggest single expense for the for-profits is marketing, not teaching.