Photo by MCT Campus
Student loan debt now totals $1.2 trillion dollars nationally, and has become the fastest growing household debt category in America, surpassing credit card debt.
According to new data from the Federal Reserve, student loan debt grew by $31 billion dollars just from January to March of this year, and more than 40 million Americans are suffering from outstanding student loans.
This debt crisis has prompted Tammy Baldwin, U.S. senator from Wisconsin, to co-sponsor new legislation to address higher education affordability.
The Bank On Students  Emergency Loan Refinancing Act will allow students to refinance their student loans at the lower interest rates of 3.86% currently offered only to new borrowers, a savings of close to 50 percent.
An estimated 515,000 Wisconsin students could benefit from the debt relief this refinancing would provide. To generate support and awareness of this new legislation, Senator Baldwin visited MATC on Friday, Sept. 5, to listen to firsthand accounts of how devastating the effects of student loan debt is on Milwaukee students and their families.
Katrona Burks, MATC nursing program student, who currently uses work study and is employed as a medical assistant, currently has $24,000 of student loan debt and feels that the senator’s visit showed that students “are not alone in this battle, and the potential legislation will provide significant stress relief.”
Burks will be the first person in her family to earn a college degree, and is currently assisting two of her children who are in college now, to pay for their degrees.
Baldwin is also sponsoring the Working Student Act, which will allow students that must work while in college to complete their degrees more quickly by increasing the amounts working students can earn without that income counting against them. This will effect need-based financial aid including Pell Grants. Working poor students like panel member David James, a single father with over $78,000 of student loan debt incurred while seeking a double associates degree program in IT at MATC, is highly frustrated and “doesn’t understand why this country puts its students in so much debt when other countries offer free college to their citizens.”
According to Dr. Vicki Martin, MATC’s new president, approximately one third of the student body is receiving financial aid, with $14,000 being the average amount of financial aid debt, and more than 70 percent of the student body works. Baldwin’s legislation will affect the vast majority of the students attending this and other technical colleges in Wisconsin. Student loan debt affects many other critical areas of quality of life including housing, transportation, health and the decision to start a family.
Brian Galecke, MATC student government treasurer and panel member, shared that he began his college career as a displaced worker, after five years he currently has $45,000 of student loan debt, and has maxed out his 12 semester eligibility for Pell Grant financial aid. This legislation would greatly decrease his debt load once refinanced.
The Career and Technical Education Opportunity Act (CTE), which the senator supports, extends eligibility for federal student loans to short-term career and technical program credentials that provide immediate advancement potential. Many of these certificate programs can be completed in one semester, and offer a more affordable level of college success. Federal aid programs are the largest single source of financial aid available for college students and are need based.
Grants and scholarships are based on merit or merit plus need, and the money does not have to be repaid. A high GPA is a requirement of most. A visit to the college counselors can provide search tools that can find little known sources of private or organizational financial support.
Loans, military programs, work-study and employer reimbursement programs offer much needed support. MATC advises students to apply by Jan. 1 to maximize the ability to qualify for multiple sources throughout the entire year.
Baldwin ended her visit with a brief tour of the counseling center, entrepreneurial center, a business development class, and the culinary programs’ jewel, the Cuisine restaurant/classroom lab and the 6th Street Cafe. The senator stopped frequently along the way to speak warmly to students and appreciate the many features MATC has to offer students and the greater Milwaukee community.