Student Debt

Floor Speech

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I would like to proceed with remarks on the student debt and loan issue, and I will be brief because I know it is late. There have been some very remarkable and eloquent remarks and personal stories about the meaning of college education.

My dad came to this country in 1955 at the age of 17 without even a high school degree. He never had one. He spoke very little or no English and had virtually nothing more than the shirt on his back and knew no one. Throughout his life one of his highest aspirations was for his children, my brother and me, to have a college education. He valued it almost more than anything else that he could hope for us to have. It was part of his dream. For him and countless immigrants and countless working men and women born in this country for decades, a college education has been part of the American dream, part of the fair shot that every American should have, an economic opportunity at self-fulfillment and developing their full potential because that is what education helps us to do. That is the reason why Americans are going into debt at unprecedented levels, because they believe in that American dream and the fair shot that it gives people through opportunity in this greatest Nation in the history of the world. It is part of our DNA as Americans that we aspire to educate and fulfill all of our potential, which benefits not only us but the whole country and all of our society.

The average level of debt in Connecticut is about $27,000--calamitously bad not only for those individuals but also for our Nation. For the individuals it means that financially crippling burden stops them from marrying at the time they wish, having children when they might like, starting businesses, buying homes, and moving forward with their lives. Who can start a small business with tens of thousands of dollars of debt? Risk taking is constrained and straitjacketed. People's personal lives are affected and changed forever.

Student debt today has increased concurrently to approximately $1.2 trillion in this country. What we are doing in this proposal by providing a fair shot to those folks who have debt now and those who will incur it in the future is simply enabling them to do what people are able to do with other kinds of debt, whether it is their homes or their cars--to refinance so that they get the benefit of lower interest rates so they avoid that financially crippling burden saddling their lives so that they are able to buy homes, start families, and begin businesses in ways that benefit them and everyone in our society.

There is another dark side of this conversation which is that the American government profits off the backs of students who have incurred debt and who are beginning their lives in debt right now. In fact, the United States profits from these loans even at 3.86 percent. So the stark crass fact is that even with this relief that we are suggesting and proposing and agitating to give to these students who have debt now, graduates that are out there with debt with 8, 10, some 11 or 12 percent interest rates, the U.S. Government will still make money from those loans--less money but the loans are still profit-making.

We should regard higher education as an investment in the future and not a revenue source or profit source. We should regard students as an investment--a personnel investment, a human resources investment, to put it again in crass business terms--that will pay off for years, not as immediate profit centers. That kind of wise investment looks beyond this quarter or next quarter. It looks to the human revenue in quality of life and contributions and new inventions that will change our lives for the better, in a more productive workplace that will make our companies more successful and profitable.

I hear from people all around the State of Connecticut. I got a stirring and moving email today from Bob in Naugatuck who told me his granddaughter has a student loan that he has cosigned and therefore he is potentially liable for it. Dean told me about his master's degree and that he is $55,000 in debt, struggling to support his family with his wife. Between them they have four jobs.

Alese, a mother of three, went back to school when her children were young because she ``wanted to make sure they had an example to follow when they finished high school.'' She is now $46,000 in debt.

As much as our economy is recovering, these folks are in danger of being left behind.

There are other measures that we should adopt, such as the uniform forms for college costs that will fully inform people about what debt they are incurring, the Pell grant expansion, the bills mentioned for net price calculated, and expanding other types of grants. We should take a step forward to provide a fair shot for all Americans in this measure that enables refinancing of loans that otherwise will crush our human potential and leave us poorer as a Nation.

I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor for my distinguished colleague from Wisconsin.

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