How Federal Student Loans Subsidized the American Dream: Echoes
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On July 1, the rate of a subsidized Stafford student loan doubled to 6.8 percent from 3.4 percent, after Congress shut down for the Independence Day holiday without taking action to prevent a scheduled increase. If lawmakers fail to reach a retroactive agreement before the August recess, the average Stafford borrower will have to pay back about $800 more than under the previous rate for every year of loans.
Today, about 66 percent of students borrow to attend college. For 2011-2012, 10.4 million borrowers took out $85.9 billion in Stafford loans, for an average of about $8,200 per borrower. In the past 50 years, more than 60 million Americans have used student loans to pay for college.