On the eve of one of the largest interest-rate hikes in student-loan history, Senate Democrats released a report this morning aimed at building support for a key plank in the party’s election-year platform: slashing the interest rates on federal student loans.

As of July 1, the interest rate on existing student loans will rise by nearly two percentage points, to 7.14 percent. Meanwhile, as a result of a budget-cutting bill Congress approved in February, students taking out new loans will pay a fixed interest rate of 6.8 percent.

The top Democrats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives have vowed that if they win back control of Congress in November, they will pass legislation that would reduce the interest rate on student loans from a fixed rate of 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent, and would cut loans for parents from 8.5 percent to 4.25 percent (The Chronicle, June 14).

The Senate Democrats’ report provides a state-by-state analysis of the rising cost of college, the erosion of the buying power of Pell Grants, the average student-loan debt incurred by students, and the percent of family income needed to pay for college after financial aid.

“At a time when incomes are stagnating, when people are losing benefits like health care and pensions, when gas prices are rising, and when the minimum wage hasn’t increased in almost a decade, American families can ill afford to pay higher rates for college loans,” Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York said during a telephone news conference today.

For more on those issues, see a continuing series by The Chronicle, “The Growing Divide” in American higher education.