Obama is President. What does that mean for college costs?

This morning, we woke up to a new President-elect. Barack Obama.

Our new President has a lot of work ahead of him, and one major issue (the one I'm sure you're very concerned with) is paying for college. Recently, President-elect Obama sat down with Sway from MTV and talked about college costs and student loans. Below is the discussion. If you want to read the entire article, click here.

In the meantime, have a great day!

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If he's elected Tuesday, Senator Obama said he'd work to create new programs — and overhaul existing ones — to help students pay for their college education, which he said was vital not only for young people, but for the overall future of the economy.

"Look, this is something I can relate to," he said, answering a question from Joy0294 of San Antonio, Texas. "I went to college having to take out student loans. I went to law school having to take out loans. Michelle took out student loans. When we got married, I think together, our total loan payments every month [were] more than our mortgage when we bought a house, and that lasted for about 10 years."

Obama said that the average student applies for between $25,000 and $30,000 in student loans, and "that's a huge burden, especially at a time when wages and incomes aren't going up." Obama said he'd like to increase the Federal Pell Grant Program for starters, but also "eliminate banks as middle men from the Direct Loan Program; they're taking out billions of dollars in profits. I want to take that money, apply that to increasing the number of loans that are out there and reducing the rate. And then, what I want to do is provide a $4,000 tuition credit to every student every year, in exchange for national service."

The credit would be available to students who volunteered with the Peace Corps, worked in their communities in some fashion or joined the military. "We're going to make sure they can afford their college tuition," Obama said. "In certain areas, like teaching, where we really need teachers, especially in math and science and nursing, where we really need nurses, we will potentially provide them even more than that, to get the high-quality teachers and nurses we need."

Those who already started incurring student loan debts won't be left out in the cold, either. Senator Obama said he'd work to find ways to consolidate some student loans. But, he admitted, "there's only so much we're going to be able to do going backwards."

Answering a question from Seb88 of Buffalo, New York, he said that we need to "focus on going forward. There are a lot of students out there who have already paid off their loans, and they may not be happy with it. They wouldn't mind getting some of their money back too.

"By the way, this isn't just four-year colleges and universities," he continued. "My attitude is, if young people are going for two years at the community-college level, for some technical training of some sort, or if they are returning to school after having worked for a while, all that is part of creating a knowledge-based workforce that's going to be the key to our competitiveness long-term. We're looking at potentially being able to consolidate some of these loans, and, if they are part of a broader pool, we may be able to lower interest rates on the debt they already owe. But the key is, going forward, making sure young people will be able to afford to go to college."