The federal government has manufactured an artificial student loan interest rate crisis and then proceeded to solve the crisis. The problems with this are many. First, the federal government has asserted a near monopoly on student loans. This is absurd on its face. They then proceeded to place a temporary 3.4% interest rate cap on federal student loans, making the cost of the loans artificially low. The manufactured crisis comes in to play when the temporary artificially low rate is supposed to bump back up to the normal rate. Then the death screams from Washington about increased interest rates echo across the nation. But don’t worry, they’re from the government and they’re here to help! Poof….they’ve come up with a compromise and saved the day…or so they like to tell us.
The reality is, the cost of higher education will continue to rise and just about anything the federal government has done, will do, might do, or might consider doing will keep pushing those costs up. It’s the federal way!