Broken Typewriter

For the past several months in Philadelphia, marijuana activists have been holding demonstrations dubbed Smokedown Prohibition’s on the grounds of Independ…

My latest article on Truth-Out.Org.  You can find my original on the Raging Chicken Press.

…College students and graduates currently have limited options to address the debt issue: let the one-year extension expire on July 1, 2013 and see interest rates double; accept plans to further delay rate hikes; or accept the president’s proposal to tie student loan interest rates to market conditions, which would effectively raise student loan interest rates as the economy recovers.

With consensus on a long-term solution far off in Washington DC, both the House and the Senate have proposed plans to delay the rate hike for two years or indefinitely postpone it. If the government cannot come up with a long-term solution, skyrocketing student debt will continue to adversely affect students in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE).

According to the Project on Student Debt, two-thirds of graduating students in the United States in 2011 had an average debt of $26,600. Seventy-seven percent of students graduating from PASSHE universities in 2011 took on student loans; the average student graduated with $26,047 in student loan debt, with an estimated $20,727 coming from federal student loan programs. Students are graduating with significant debt, and allowing rates to double will only make matters worse….