$10,000? $25,000? $50,000? Polling shows that those debt amounts aren't uncommon for NEA members. Tell us what your student loan debt is and how it's affecting your life. Is it making you think about leaving teaching for a better-paying profession? Are you delaying marriage, having kids, or buying a home?

Tell Congress to keep college affordable.

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What's Wrong?

• A national trend over the last 30 years which has seen the burden of financing higher education shift from the state to the student.
  
  
• Average cost of tuition at a public college has increased 4 percent, but median household income has fallen 2 percent.
  
  
• The last Congress raised interest rates on student loans and cut $12 billion from the Federal Student Aid program.
  
  
• The average student debt burden in 2004 was almost 60 percent higher than the mid 1990's.
  
  
• The average starting salary for teachers in Alabama is $28,000, and the typical student who borrows to pay for a college education graduates with a debt of almost $20,000.

What To Do?

Congress in September 2007 approved the College Cost Reduction and Access Act.
This helped to make the dream of higher education a reality for most low- and middle-income students. The legislation, would implement several student loan program reforms designed to eliminate waste and mismanagement but there's more work to do.

We need to ...

• Increase need-based grant aid to restore the purchasing power of the Pell Grant. Congress should raise the maximum Pell Grant award to $5,100.
  
  
• Make student loans more affordable by lowering interest rates, limiting the percentage of income students spend repaying loans, and reinstating refinancing of existing loans.
  
  
• Encourage public service careers by expanding loan forgiveness programs for critical public service professions.
  
• Cut waste in the student loan programs by passing the Student Aid Reward Act to give money to students and parents, not banks.