Pres. Barack Obama has signed a memorandum directing the Dept. of Education and other federal agencies to help keep education costs affordable during and after college, as the nation’s tally of student loan debt continues to mount.
The order, signed by Pres. Obama on Tuesday ahead of an address
at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, contains recommendations for the
government to handle rising concerns about the price of obtaining
a college degree and the major fiscal post-graduation aftermath,
as well as a “Student Aid Bill of Rights.”
“It’s an executive action that we’re able to take to
streamline and improve the manner in which the federal government
interacts with students,” Obama told reporters at the White
House on Tuesday.
Although the directive does not in itself encode any new laws, it
does call on the administration to coordinate with the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and develop recommendations
for regulatory and legislative changes, according to the White
House.
The CFPB determined in 2013 that the total amount of federal
student loan debt owed in the US amounts to over $1.2 trillion,
and this week the Washington Post acknowledged that the figure
has only risen in the months since, with the average college
graduate leaving school with nearly $29,000 in loans.
“One of the things that’s been uppermost on my mind is how do
we make sure that every young person in this country who is
willing to put in the effort can afford to go to college,”
Obama said on Tuesday.
The memorandum contains a four-point “bill of rights” – an
outline of the administration’s intentions with regards to the
imperatives Obama believes should be afforded to the nation’s
growing number of student loan debt holders.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans graduating with bachelor’s degrees
do so with student loan debt. The president’s directive, however,
aims to see that “all of the more than 40 million Americans
with student loans have additional basic rights and
protections,” the White House said.
The bill of rights unveiled by the administration orders the
government to ensure that students across the US can obtain
“a quality, affordable education at a college that’s cutting
costs and increasing learning,” but also be given the proper
resources to pay back any loans — and through an affordable
repayment plan – while also receiving “quality customer
service, reliable information and fair treatment,” according
to the White House.
“The president is rightly prioritizing much-needed consumer
protections for borrowers, and we urge the actions he’s calling
for are taken as quickly as possible,” said Lauren Asher,
president of the non-profit Institute for College Access
Success, said of Obama’s bill to the Huffington Post. “It’s
incumbent on the agencies to follow through as quickly as they
can.”