Making Ends Meet: DeLauro Hosts Higher Education Costs Talk

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) hosted a discussion with local parents, students and college administrators today on the crushing cost of higher education to Connecticut families. Without Congressional action, the student loan interest rate will double one week from today, to 6.8 percent. This will come on top of federal cuts to higher education programs due to the deeply harmful budget cuts known as sequestration. 

“Congress should be working to make college more available and affordable to students, not cutting programs that help them obtain an education. Every American should have the opportunity to get an education and make a better life. Without access to college there is no middle class and the compact between generations is broken. If you work hard, it pays off and you do better than your parents; that is the deal in America. Congress needs to act this week to ensure millions of Americans still have a chance at that reality by keeping student interest rates low.”

Participants at the roundtable included: Vinnie Avallone, a parent concerned about the increased costs he and his family are facing to send his daughter to college; Adrienne Maslin, Dean of Student Affairs at Middlesex Community College; Sean Martin, Associate Director of Financial Aid at Wesleyan University; Russhane Bowerise, a freshman at Central Connecticut State University; Alicia Waldner, recent Middletown High School graduate attending Southern Connecticut State University in the fall; and Kyle Barreuther, mother of two, one currently in college, the other a freshman in the fall. 

Over the last 30 years, the average tuition at four-year state universities has almost quadrupled. Last year, for the first time ever, student loan debt passed the $1 trillion mark. If the student loan interest rate doubles July 1, 73,000 Connecticut students will pay $1,000 more in interest on their loans next school year.

After accounting for population growth and inflation, critical federal programs like Work Study, TRIO, GEAR UP, and Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, have been cut by almost a third over the last decade. And the sequester cuts have cost around 500 Connecticut students Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, and 500 others have been cut from work-study programs.