A College Board report finds that "the net cost of college is eating up a higher share of the typical family's income in 2011," with the average public university tuition up 5.4 percent for in-state students. The primary reasons behind the increase is "a dramatic spike in tuition and fees at hundreds of public universities" where average tuition has jumped 8.3 percent.
Obama will unveil a plan today to allow 5.8 million Americans with government student loans to consolidate their debts into one government loan. On top of the U.S. essentially "refinancing the private loan at the lower government rate," Obama will move up the start of a program that caps monthly loan payments for low-income students from 2014 to 2012.
The plan would be authorized through an executive order and allow the president to sidestep Congress, which has steadfastly blocked his $447 billion American Jobs Act. Obama's announcement at the University of Colorado in Denver was expected to energize the base of young voters who elected the president in 2008 but it was unclear how many students would take advantage of the program.
A similar 2007 plan, which caps repayment at 15 percent of discretionary income, has had only a fraction of eligible borrowers participate, according to the Washington Post.
