Obama proposal would alleviate student loan burden with lower payments

President Barack Obama outlined initiatives to decrease monthly loan payments of soon-to-be college graduates in a proposal Tuesday afternoon.

The bill would expand an existing loan repayment program that capped student loan repayments at 15 percent of the student’s discretionary income – income left after taxes and basic necessities are paid for.

The plan would also reduce monthly payments to 10 percent of students’ discretionary income, according to a statement released Tuesday from the White House.

In addition, Obama’s plan aims to consolidate federal student loan program repayment.

Students supported by multiple federal programs would be able to make single monthly payments instead of multiple payments to different programs, which would significantly reduce interest payments, according to the statement.

“The need for enough income to make large monthly payments may discourage some graduates from starting a new job-creating business or entering teaching or another lower-paying public service career,” the statement said.

“˜Black journalista,’ alumna Erin Aubry Kaplan discovers her voice as a black woman and writer in the 21st century

Oct. 24, 2011 “”mdash; After a long and promising journalism career, Erin Aubry Kaplan published her first book, “Black Talk, Blue Thoughts, and Walking the Color Line: Dispatches from a Black Journalista.” Her humor and honesty is revealed in this collection of literary works. The UCLA alumna brings these pages to life as she calls in to talk about both her title and her personal take on life as a 21st-century black woman and writer.

Long Story Short streams online Mondays at 6 p.m. on UCLAradio.com. Listen to the whole episode here or visit our broadcast archive.

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