Senate Set to Finish Work on Student Loan Deal

Lower interest rates on all student loans are in sight.

The Senate on Wednesday is set to take up a bill that would link interest rates to the financial markets, providing lower rates for all college students this fall but perhaps prescribing higher rates in the years ahead.

Critics, including liberal Democrats and student groups, call the White House-backed proposal a bait-and-switch measure that would jab future students.

Under the deal, undergraduates this fall could borrow at a 3.9 percent interest rate. Graduate students would have access to loans at 5.4 percent, and parents would be able to borrow at 6.4 percent. Those rates would climb as the economy improves.