College Cost Reduction & Access Act

A.

Everyone should look into this federal student loan repayment option:

"One of the big perks of the 2007 College Cost Reduction and Access Act is the Income-Based Repayment program. Taking effect next Wednesday, the IBR allows college graduates with federal loans, including Staffords, Grad Plus, and Perkins, to lower their loan payments if they have enough debt compared to their incomes. (If it takes more than 15 percent of what you earn above 150 percent of the poverty level to pay your loans off in a standard ten years, you’re in.) For most borrowers, the program reduces payments no more than 10 percent of their earnings."

"One of the big advantages of the program is that the term of the loan is capped. So as long as you make qualifying payments under IBR for 25 years, the rest of your debt is forgiven, no matter how big it is. If you work in public service – say, as a teacher or in a government job – the balance of the loan is forgiven after only 10 years."

Here is an article about this in the Christian Science Monitor .

Here is a website set up to explain IBR, but you have apply through your lender.

I think the federal government could do more about student loan debt but this is a good start. This is also an example of what happens when Democrats are in charge.