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Lowering college costs is an issue that has to be addressed on a war footing. In order to urge colleges to cut costs, our President is all set to head for campuses. In order to reduce rates on student loans, President Obama will push Congress.

His campaign debate scheduled this week will pick heat as he adds the colleges cost to it. Apart from calling on Congress to ensure that student loan rates do not go higher this summer, he will also travel to campuses in the swing states.

A debate on this issue was forestalled by Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee which makes it evident that rather than risking a political mishap, he would rather allow Obama claim victory on this particular issue.

Unless Congress acts on time and decides to keep rates down, at least seven million students who have to opt for the Stafford loan program will suffer this year. Extending present low rates will add up at least $6 billion for taxpayers which is one of the reasons why Republicans in the Congress are hesitating.

For many families, a major issue is cost of college. Supporting our President’s proposal is Mitt Romney who said, in a news conference in Philadelphia that he also thinks the student loans must continue to be kept at low rates.

He said that due to the poor job market conditions, it is imperative to extend temporary interest rate relief on student loans. Whether his views will be supported by the Republicans in the Congress is yet to be seen.

Education and Workforce House Committee Chairman John Kline says that any proposal kicked on in this manner will only lead to uncertainty. Our President is making a trip to Chapel Hill’s University of North Carolina in a bid to start putting pressure. Just a couple of months ago,
students of this university protested against tuition fee increase. The other two swing states he will be visiting include University of Iowa and Boulder’s University of Colorado.

Four years ago, Obama was victorious with the support of young voters. There have been efforts to rekindle the same enthusiasm among them by campaign strategists. Focus of the campaign will be on college cost issues in states where President Obama will not be visiting in person.
A key voting group in the state of Nevada is the Latino group. The campaign will host a college affordability round-table discussion in the state.  At many locations, phone banks on college affordability will be held by Obama campaign volunteers in New Hampshire.

The aim of the campaign is to highlight our President’s policies which include 10% capping of loan payments, Pell grants and enhanced higher education access. Republicans on the other hand are counter attacking by focusing on under and unemployment among graduates. Romney cited an Associated Press government data that shows that under the age of 25, more than 53% college graduates were unemployed. He said this while speaking at South Park, Pa based Consol Energy.

Whoever is able to garner enough support and convince voters, we can only hope that our higher education system will come out of the dark age.