Augusta Free Press
June 22, 2012
Thursday afternoon, U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine met with Northern Virginia students and parents to discuss the future of higher education.
During the roundtable at Villa Bella Ristorante in Burke, Kaine emphasized the importance of higher education to developing the world’s most talented workforce, a key part of his economic vision. Kaine outlined strategies to make higher education more accessible and affordable, including the urgent need for Congress to extend current Stafford student loan rates by June 30 to prevent rates from doubling for more than 177,000 Virginia students.
“We’ve got to get back to number one in the world in talent measures which means we’ve got to tackle this affordability issue in higher education,” said Kaine. “We need to maintain vigorous financial aid programs. It would be an absolute tragedy to let Stafford loan interest rates double at month’s end. If Congress can’t find a way to work together to keep that from happening, 177,000 Virginia students who have Stafford loans are going to see their monthly payments go up significantly.”