A dangerous consequence of last year’s federal budget will begin July 1, 2012, and will have a devastating impact on African Americans who need the assistance of loans to attend college. Last year, when congress was trying to find ways to reduce the federal budget during the debt-ceiling debate, they left interest rates poised to increase July 1 for all government student loans. This means that nearly eight million students nationwide who rely on subsidized loans to cover college costs would see the interest rate double from the current 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent as of July 1, if there is no change made to address this by Congress soon.
