Written by Marina Villeneuve, Gannett Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Congressional debates on budget matters often lack human perspective, and Rutgers University freshman Pamela Navrot wants to change that.
Navrot, of Clementon, N.J., pays for her college education through a combination of subsidized and unsubsidized loans, as do about 28,800 other Rutgers students. She wants congressional lawmakers to see a student’s face when they make critical decisions on money for college loans.
“Coming from a very basic middle-class background, I definitely see the need for federal financial aid,” she said during a visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday.
Navrot and 12 other Rutgers students urged lawmakers to continue supporting Pell Grants for low-income students and to reverse long-standing plans to increase the interest rate on subsidized college loans from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, an increase Navrot said would be “insurmountable.”
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