June 22 - CHARLOTTE VIEW: True or False? Presidential candidates promise to lower College Cost

Charlotte View welcomes back Jeremy Turner with Safe College Funding (financial aid consulting company) and Rhett Brown with WIngate University

Interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans are set to double from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1 (2012), unless Congress intervenes. The lower rate was part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007. Although President Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney both support temporarily extending low interest rates, Congress continues to debate how to fund the lower rate. According to the Congressional Budget Office, keeping the lower rate is expected to cost $6 billion for one year.

The Wall Street Journal reports, "Many predict any rise in rates could push more families to seek out less-expensive colleges -- furthering a shift that is already underway".

Since his State of the Union address, President Obama has asked the National Governors Association to increase state funding for higher education, proposed federal incentives for colleges to rein in tuition costs, and talked about how job-skills training helps grow the economy.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York calculates that the outstanding student-loan balance now stands about $870 billion, with about two-thirds of that debt held by people under age 40.

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